


Boy Next Door

by Siyah_Kedi



Series: Golden City [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Originally written in 2011, alternating pov, old
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 18:57:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 49,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14503416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siyah_Kedi/pseuds/Siyah_Kedi
Summary: First draft of an old novel attempt.





	1. Character Introductions

  



	2. My Neighbor (Andie)

My neighbour was a wizard.

I didn’t know at first.  It’s not like he put up a sign out on his door – “Anthony Fergusson, Professional Wizard” – and before I found out, his only real crime was wearing too much black clothing and not talking to the rest of the neighbours.

This, I think, should have clued everyone in at first, when the Fergussons had just moved in.  We were a pretty tightknit neighbourhood, situated in the circle at the end of Snow Street.  There were kids my age in every house, and all our parents were friends.  We usually had parties or cookouts or sleepovers at least every other weekend and we were always at each other’s houses.  But the Fergussons – Anthony and his son Grey (there didn’t seem to be a Mrs. Fergusson, but no one knew why) – never spoke to or dealt with any of the rest of us.  They very politely accepted all the home-warming gifts and food everyone brought them when they moved into the old MacCarthy house right next door to mine, equally politely returned all the dishes, and then never spoke more than two words to any of us ever again.

Grey Fergusson went to my school, too.  He rode the bus with me and my three best friends Hallie, Oliver, and Rihanna, but he always sat by himself and never talked to anyone.  We had a lot of the same classes together too, but the pattern held.  He normally didn’t even acknowledge me.  He rarely put his hand up in class, and when he was called on he answered as briefly as he could get away with.  For some reason, the teachers all adored him, despite his weird clothes and near-constant silence.

Most of the kids made fun of him.  I never did because I remembered middle school, when I was the geeky kid who wore glasses and got picked on, but just because I never joined in that didn’t stop Riha – who looked like a supermodel but acted like a tomboy – and Hallie, who looked like a tomboy and acted like a girly-girl – from making fun of him.  Oliver didn’t care one way or another, but he was completely and utterly besotted with Hallie, and he went along with her and laughed at her jokes at Grey’s expense.  At first, I tried defending him but they didn’t want to hear anything good about him, even from me, and I was usually ignored.

The night I saw the lights from the Fergusson’s shed changed everything, though.

2

It looked like they’d set a fire in there.  I just happened to look out my bedroom window and see the flickering orange lights.  I almost called the fire department, but I’ve always been too nosy for my own good.  And if it wasn’t a fire, or they had it under control, I’d be wasting everyone’s time and effort, and I’d probably get into trouble for it.

Yeah, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a better idea to just go over and check it out for myself, before I called anyone.

The fence between our yards was small, and I’d been climbing over it to cut through Mrs. MacCarthy’s yard into Oliver’s since I was a little kid.  The path we’d worn in the grass was still visible.  I climbed over the fence easily, and walked quickly to the window in the shed where I’d seen the flickering come from. 

I looked in long enough to see that there was no fire in the shed – no one was in there at all, actually – and then a voice from the house startled me.

“Halt!  Who goes there?”

It was so sudden and so – _archaic_ – that I laughed before I could stop myself.

A light came on, flooding the Fergusson’s yard and blinded me for a moment.  Then the voice came again, vaguely familiar.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, though.

“Andrea Byrne?  What are you _doing_ there?”

I turned around as my eyes adjusted to the brightness.  As I saw who it was, it occurred to me why I hadn’t recognized the voice.  I’d never heard Grey Fergusson speak above a mumble before.

Grey stood in the kitchen door, the flood lights on at the roof of the house.  “I asked you a question, Andrea Byrne,” he said and just for a moment, he sounded so fierce that I was almost afraid of him.

Then I remembered I was Andie Byrne and I wasn’t afraid of anything.  Hands on my hips, I turned around to face him fully, squinting against the light.  “I thought I saw a fire in your shed,” I called back to him.  Even from where I was standing I could see him frown.

“A fire?”  The frown twisted into a full-blown scowl.  I’d read about the expression before, but this was the first time I’d ever actually seen someone make an expression that could be described that way.  I resisted my first impulse to make a sarcastic comment.  Had I wasted my time defending him when my friends called him things like ‘idiot’ and ‘retard’?

“A fire,” he repeated, walking out into the yard to stand closer to me.  “You shouldn’t have been able to see anything.”  His voice was quiet, almost like he didn’t expect me to hear that last part.  Another snarky comment rose to my lips, but before I could get a breath in to say it and start the teen fight of the century, he was talking again.  This was literally the most I’d ever heard him say at one time.  And at audible levels, too.  I quickly checked the sky to make sure it wasn’t falling, and wondered if maybe hell had quietly frozen over.

“How did you get in here, anyway?” he asked.

I couldn’t help myself.  This was just too much.  “Uh, _hello._ That flimsy little fence wouldn’t stop a Chihuahua, and I’ve been hopping over it to get to Oliver’s house since I was like, four.”

He scowled again, eyeing the fence as if it had personally insulted him.  I wondered if maybe he was one of those weird people who would grow up to be the type of old guy who didn’t want kids in his yard.  “You shouldn’t be over here,” he said finally.  “It might be dangerous.”

I rolled my eyes at him.  “Ooh, yeah.  Big bad scary fences, mysteriously disappearing fires, and _totally_ creepy neighbours.”  Oops.  I hadn’t actually meant to let the last part slip out.  Too late now.  “I can definitely see how these things are life-threatening,” I continued, hoping he wouldn’t have caught it.

No luck.  His eyebrows dipped in a frown, and he said, “Creepy?”  Then he shook his head.  “That doesn’t matter.  It _is_ life-threatening, _especially_ if you saw those lights and got over the fence.  Stay here; I need to find my father.”

He took a few steps back towards the house, and I glared at him.  “So what, you can rat me out for trespassing?”  I was good and pissed off now, and it was beginning to show.  “Well, ex _cuse_ me for being a concerned neighbour.  Next time I see flames, I’ll just let your house burn down.  Happy?”

“No, no.”  He looked frustrated.  Now just _stay there._   I’ll be right back.”

I was thinking, what a _basket case._ I’m going home.  But for some reason, I couldn’t make my legs work to go back over the fence.  Not that I could have avoided them for long.  They were my next-door neighbours, after all.  It was the principal of the thing.  I didn’t particularly enjoy being ordered around by a boy not much older than me, one who’d never spoken three words to me the whole time we’d been living next door, and whose voice was more suited to performing Shakespeare than having normal teenaged conversations.

But I couldn’t make myself move from beside the shed and resigned myself to waiting for whatever the Fergussons had planned.

After a few minutes – just long enough, I guessed, to check every room in the house – Grey came back outside, a troubled expression on his face.  “Listen to me, Andrea Byrne.  Did you see anything else in the shed beside the lights?  People?  Strange things?  My father?”

I took a deep breath, trying to find my center.  I was still pissed, still couldn’t move, and this kid was seriously annoying me.  “The strangest thing I’ve seen tonight,” I answered honestly, “is you.  And there was no one and nothing in the shed when I looked.  I guess I just saw a reflection from someone’s headlights or something.”  I shifted my weight and suddenly discovered I could.   Now seemed like a good time to go back to my own house, before he pulled out an axe and chopped me up or something.  I started back to the fence.

“Wait a moment, Andrea Byrne.”

I stopped with a heavy sigh and looked back at him.  Grey was pale, even in the flood lights, and looked incredibly disturbed about something. 

“ _Please_ stop calling me Andrea Byrne,” I said.  “Cal me Andie like everyone else.”

The perturbed look on his face never faded.  “As you wish, uh… Andie.”  He seemed unsure.  “You are absolutely _positive_ you saw nothing and no one in the shed?”

“Do I look like an idiot to you?” I asked.  My voice was snappy but I couldn’t find it in me to feel guilty over it.  Fortunately, Grey seemed more embarrassed than upset. 

“No,” he said.  “But this is worrisome indeed.”

This was just _too much._   “Um.  Excuse me,” I said.  “ _What_ year were you born again?”

I succeeded in wiping the nervous look off his face, replacing it with honest curiousity.  “Nineteen ninety six.  Why?”

It was clear from the expression on his face that he was just as bewildered by me as I was by him.  “Because you talk like you just stepped out of the seventeenth century.”  I saw no reason to lie to him about it.  I mean, he _had_ to know how _weird_ he was, didn’t he?

“Oh.  My apologi- er… I’m sorry.  It’s just… the way we speak.  At home.”  He shifted his attention from me back to the shed and the worried look came back.  “He’s not inside,” he said softly.  For a moment it looked as though he was trembling, and then I told myself that was silly.  He was sixteen – well over the age where his dad not being at home after dark should scare him. 

I started back for the fence.  Not my problem.  He sighed, and looked so forlorn that I almost felt guilty leaving him behind.  “Did you lose something?” I asked, and stopped short of hauling myself back over the fence.

He glanced up; almost like he was surprised I was still there.  Truth be told, I was surprised I was still there.  I kept telling myself to get out and go home before things got any weirder, but he looked so unhappy.  He may have been an irritating freak, but it went against my nature to just leave him there like that. 

“Yes,” he said finally.  “I did.  My father.”

 _Time to go._   But I didn’t.  I took a step closer to him and further from the fence instead.  “You _lost_ your father?  Did it ever occur to you that maybe he just stepped out to run to the store or something?”

Grey’s expression clearly said that the possibility had never even come close to touching his mind, much less crossing it.  “No,” he said slowly, considering.  “No,” he said again, more firmly.  “Father wouldn’t have done something like that, not without at least informing me beforehand.  Something must have happened.”

I felt like I was playing a game of twenty questions.  “Like _what_?  You two are the only ones who’ve been in the house since you moved in!”  My patience with his archaic density was at its end.  “If you think he’s in the shed, let’s go in and find out.”  I walked around to the door.  There was a padlock hanging off it, open and ready to be closed again when whoever – presumably Mr. Fergusson – was through in the shed.  I flicked a triumphant smile at Grey.  “See?  He’s probably inside, just on the floor or behind something.”

Before he could say anything else, I pulled the door open and started to take a step inside.  Before I’d even put my foot down, Grey surprised me by exploding into motion.

“Wait! It might be dangerous!”

I rolled my eyes as I completed my movement, ignoring him as I stepped inside.  “Ooh, very scary.”  He reached my side, looking a little wild-eyed. 

“It’s not here,” he said cryptically.

I thought, _what a strange thing to say_ , but instead of looing under the table or in the closet, he went straight to an empty hook on the wall. 

“My god, Father, what have you done?”

Leaving Grey to his personal crisis, I let my curiousity get the better of me.  Rumours abounded as to what the Fergussons were keeping in this shed, and I intended to put some of them to rest.

Before I had a chance to _really_ look for anything suspicious – holes or mounds in the dirt where bodies might be buried, or idol worship – a strange pattern on the wall caught my attention.

I was pretty sure it hadn’t been there when Grey and I walked into the shed.  And it almost seemed to be – well.  _Glowing._

 _That’s ridiculous,_ I told myself.  Walls don’t glow.  It must have been some sort of glow in the dark paint or something.  That’s what I told myself, anyway.  “Hey, Grey?  What’s this?”  I put my hand out to run my fingers over it.  A sharply indrawn breath was my only warning before Grey crashed into me, shouting something that sounded like “Don’t touch!”

The momentum of his lunge had the opposite effect, however, and sent us both crashing into the wall.

There was a blinding flash of orange light, and a sudden sensation of falling forward.  For a moment, I thought we’d connected some sort of electrical circuit and started a real fire that had collapsed the wall.

3

Then we were through, and Grey was swearing up a storm. 

“What the hell just happened?!  No, don’t answer that.  That should have been impossible.  What the – what _are_ you?”

My temper – already on the rise due to the scene earlier and my fraying nerves – erupted at his sudden rudeness.  “ _What?_   What am _I_?  I should be asking you that, you gothic freak!”  Another of the insults Hallie and Riha were so fond of.  Grey wore just as much black as Anthony did, which is to say I’m not entirely sure they _owned_ clothing in any other colour.  Even his book bag and binders were black.

“Freak?” He repeated.  “I’m not the freak here.  I know exactly what I am, which is more than I can say for you.  You shouldn’t have been able to get into our yard, much less see that doorway!”  There was a panicked tone at the edge of his voice, but I chose to ignore it, and instead let out a shriek that was part rage and part pure frustration.  A split-second later it was echoed by something considerably larger and meaner-sounding than my pathetic, fifteen year old self.

“Shit,” Grey swore.  I let out a scandalized gasp at his language. 

“What _was_ that?” I demanded. 

Grey shrugged unhelpfully.  “Something big, mean, and probably hungry.”    

“ _What?_ ”

He ignored me, instead feeling along the walls for something unknown.  “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Despite everything – the strange accusations, the weird shed, the fire and door and my creepy neighbour – I laughed.  Even to myself, though, it sounded a little hysterical. 

“Toto?  I’m Toto now?  Does that make you Dorothy?”

Grey shot me a dirty look, which was admittedly better than being ignored, if not by much.  “Shut up, Toto,” he muttered, and I almost thought I caught a sly smile on his face as he turned away.  I popped off a mocking salute at the back of his head.

“Yes sir, Dorothy, ma’am.”

He ignored me, searching around at the wall.  Another roar rang through the hallways of wherever we were, almost obscuring the quiet “Aha!” noise Grey made as he pressed his palm flat against the wall, fingers splayed.  There was another blinding flash of light, and for a moment I could have sworn his eyes were _purple._   A split second after the light faded, something crashed around the corner.  The panicked half-glance I managed to get of it revealed something that looked like a Greek Minotaur, if the Minotaur had had rows of razor sharp fangs and foamed at the mouth.  Then Grey was shoving me through the _wall_ , and the narrow, dark hallway vanished, replaced by a big room decorated in gemstones – or at least what looked like gemstones – embedded in the walls.

“What- What is this place?  Where _are_ we?  What was that _thing_ back there?”  The tide of hysteria was rising up again; I could feel it.  It felt like something dark and scary creeping up on me in the night, getting ready to pounce.  Maybe the mental version of the not-Minotaur back there.

“Calm down, Toto.”  Grey sounded very sure of himself at last, and the absurdity of the spontaneous nickname did go a long way towards settling my raging pulse.  “That was a minotaur.” 

I wasn’t any happier knowing that my first impression of the monster had been correct. 

“It’s sort of a guard, to keep people out who aren’t supposed to be here.  The good news is,” Grey continued, “that my father passed this way recently, too.  Otherwise the doorway wouldn’t have opened so easily.”

I took a deep breath and tried to get a grip on myself.  One look around the glimmering room was almost enough to undo me again.  “Hey, Dorothy.”  I’d never called him Grey, so it was easy to think of him in terms of the nickname.  “You’re still making no sense,” I informed him.  “And that’s the second time you’ve called one of those things a _doorway._   Doorway to walk?  Where. Are. We?”

He took a deep breath and shrugged, looking around.  “The Gateroom,” he said after a pause.  I rubbed my temple.

“Oh, sure, right, that’s just what I was thinking. Thanks for clearing that up.”

“Sorry.”  Grey ducked his head, looking embarrassed and flushed.  His eyes were still tinted purple, but they’d gone a sort of violet-grey instead of the flamingly vivid neon they’d been when he opened the –doorway.  If they had been neon, and if I wasn’t just outright imagining things.  “I guess I’ll have to explain,” he said cautiously.  “But first you must swear never to reveal to another soul – living or dead – what I am about to tell you.”

His voice had taken on that curious, seventeenth-century-gentleman tone again.   I said, “What?”

“Swear.”

I looked into his dead-serious, purple-grey eyes.  Flashes of light and colour from the surrounding room played off his face, turning his skin and hair funny colours too.  I wondered for a moment if that was the reason for his eyes supposedly changing colour, but then remembered that we hadn’t been in this room when I noticed them.  He was waiting solemnly for me to speak, I realised belatedly, and nodded my head.  “I swear never to tell another soul, living or dead, whatever you’re about to tell me,” I said, figuring he was off his rocker at this point.  I felt something _twist_ inside me, though, almost like a key turning in a lock.  It felt weird, but at that moment, I didn’t want to worry about it.  “Now, _Dorothy._   You going to explain or do I have to guess?”

A distinctly awkward expression passed over his face, made all the more disturbing by the fact that his eyes were doing that neon-glowing thing again.  This time, I watched it happen, and I realised that they were really glowing.  They’d really gone from grey to purple, and they were emitting light just like a lamp.  I almost didn’t hear him when he started to talk again.

“Please forgive me a moment,” he said.  “I’ve never had to… well, _explain_ this to anyone before.”  I nodded, still trying to come to terms with the fact that his _eyes_ were _glowing_ , and he took a deep breath, steeling himself.  _For what,_ I wanted to know, but he’d asked for a minute and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. 

“The simplest way to say this,” Grey began uneasily, “is to say it outright.  Well…” He was clearly lollygagging, and I felt my already threadbare patience – tried to the limit so many times tonight by this boy – starting to fray. 

“Out with it, Dorothy!” I snapped.

“I’m a wizard.”  His words rushed out all at once, as if he were afraid they’d get stuck if he stopped to breathe. 

My breath rushed out on a laugh.  “And I’m the Wicked Witch of the West.  Pull the other one.”

His eyes were neon.  “I’ll prove it,” he challenged, seeming more confident now that the big secret was out.  He reached up into the empty air and twisted his fingers.  A bouquet of flowers I’d never seen in my life – flowers that couldn’t possibly even _exist_ – appeared in his fist.  He dropped them with another twist of his hand and they turned into vibrantly plumed birds that instead of chirping sang opera.

“Believe me now?”  His eyes glittered, and the smile on his face could only be described as smug. 

I sat down.  It wasn’t intentional; my legs simply refused to hold me up any more.  “Holy _shit._ ”

The cocky smile dropped off his face as he knelt beside me.  “Hey, Andrea.  You okay?”  He put one hand on my shoulder.  “Andie?  … Toto?”

I took a few deep breaths.  “Oh sure, I’m just great.  Peachy keen actually.  Why shouldn’t I be okay?  My next door neighbour does _magic._ Real magic.  Not just crappy card tricks or pulling rabbits out of hats.”  I sounded hysterical.  I _felt_ hysterical.  Hysteria was not misplaced in this situation, I decided, and wondered how long I could keep going.

“Do you want me to pull a rabbit out of a hat?” 

He wasn’t wearing a hat, but somehow I wasn’t surprised when one appeared on his head.  He lifted it – it wasn’t the usual top hat one saw in those stage magician’s shows, it was a beanie – sign of the times, I guess, I thought, and then clamped down on it.  The hat was clearly empty, and he turned it inside out to prove it, and his manner was just like those old magic shows, all courtesy and calm showmanship, and I suddenly didn’t want him to pull anything out of the hat that shouldn’t exist.  _Magic._   Every kid dreams of being able to do it, there was an insanely popular book series about that exact thing, normal kid grows up and finds out he’s a wizard, except Grey knew, had probably known all his life, he was utterly at ease with it and besides he wasn’t wearing robes or wielding a wand, his eyes just turned purple and _he did magic._

I felt like crying all of a sudden, though I couldn’t have said why – except maybe it was just a reaction to the shock.  “Why did you bring me here?” I asked.  Wherever ‘here’ was.

He huffed.  “Psh.  I didn’t do it on purpose.  You _were_ the one who somehow opened the doorway in our shed.”  He really seemed more at ease with himself, I realised.  Maybe this was the reason behind his bizarre behavior.  Maybe he had to keep this huge secret hidden from the entire world, and that’s why he acted like such a freak at school.  Maybe having the secret shared with someone made him more comfortable.

I felt glad for him, but sorry for myself.  It didn’t make _me_ feel any more comfortable.  “Don’t be an ass, _Dorothy._ I didn’t do it on purpose.”  I mocked his words, trying to get my anger around me as a shield.  _If I can stay mad at him,_ I rationalized, _I won’t think about his eyes changing colours or birds that really sing, or – or anything else magical.  Magical.  Omigod._  

“Have you ever done _anything_ on purpose, Toto?” 

For some reason, the gentle bickering was helping, somehow gave me strength.  I ignored him as I clambered to my feet.  “Okay,” I said with a calmness I sure wasn’t feeling.  “A wizard.”  It got easier to accept the more I thought about it.  “A wizard,” I repeated.  “A magical wizard.”  His eyebrow went up and he stared while I gathered my thoughts.  “Don’t you need a wand and some dorky robes?” I asked finally, the book series still in my head.

He chuckled.  It was probably the first time I’d ever heard him laugh, and it took me off guard.  “Nah,” he said, and for once he sounded _normal._ “That’s just in stories.”

I felt a curious dissatisfaction.  It seemed like his explanation that he was a wizard should have explained _something_ else.  The mysteries of the world, maybe, or the secret of life. It didn’t even explain why he was so weird, though of course, I had my own theories.  And it didn’t explain why, now that my initial freak-out was winding down, I didn’t seem to be having any trouble accepting his powers.  His _magic powers._   I wasn’t sure if I was jealous or in awe. 

I think I was more bothered by the fact that this didn’t really bother me than the fact of his powers themselves. 

“So,” I said.  “Why is this the – the Gateroom?”  I’d deal with whatever I wasn’t dealing with now – later.

“Because it is a room where the gates lead into and out of the city,” Grey said.  He seemed a little bit lost.  He’d been so in control a moment before – when I’d been freaking out, reacting the way I was _supposed_ to react when he told me he was a wizard – but now I wasn’t behaving the way I was meant to, and he didn’t seem to know what to do with me.  I felt a tiny bit of satisfaction; at least both of us were off-kilter instead of just me.

I wasn’t best pleased with the apparent need to drag everything out of him, though.  “Oh-key,” I said.  “The city?”

“Aramalan.”

I scowled at him, wondering if he was close enough to smack or if I’d have to find something to throw.  “Ara-what?”  Hopefully the question would be enough to get him to actually _explain_ what he was talking about. 

“Ara…malan,” he repeated, slower – as if that would be enough for me to suddenly know what he meant.  “Most people shorten it to Arama.  It means something, but I can’t remember what.  Would you…” He paused uncomfortably and shifted his weight.  “Would you like to see the city?”

I took another look around the jewel-encrusted room.  With a cheer that was almost faked, I beamed at him.  “I’d love to!”

He grinned suddenly; it transformed his face.

For the first time since I’d hopped the fence between our houses, I felt myself actually warming up to him.  “Oh my god, Dorothy,” I said, teasing.  “Under all that Mr. Doom-and-Gloom there was an actual human being!  Why didn’t you tell me?”

His smile turned shy.  “Aw, shut up Toto.”

“Did I embarrass the little Dorothy-boo?  Are you going to _blush_ now?”

He was already blushing, but I was half-afraid the pressure would pop his head off if his face got any redder than it was.   Instead of answering, Grey put his hands against the wall.  If I’d thought his face lit up when I’d shown an interest in the Arama city of his, it was _nothing_ compared to the fireworks he was setting off now.

“Thank the listening Gods,” he breathed. 

“What is it?”  I moved closer to him, peering at his hands and tried to figure out what had caused this reaction.  I imagined myself as a scientist exploring a native village, cataloguing the people’s reactions and behaviours.  My teasing forgotten, I sort of basked in the – the _radiance_ he was emitting like sunlight.  Happy was a good look on him.

He turned to me with a bright smile.  “My father was here recently.  He passed through this gate, probably,” he paused and considered, “about an hour before we got here.”  He looked so relieved, it was kinda contagious.  I was glad Mr. Fergusson had been here, too.  I opened my mouth to add something, but he beat me to the punch.

“Now,” he said suddenly, distracting me from whatever I’d been about to say next.  “Behold.”  He murmured something softly and a glowing golden line appeared on the wall.  It spread as I watched, splitting off at the top and bottom and racing around until it formed two rectangles that might have vaguely resembled doors, if you looked hard enough. 

No sooner had the thought passed through my head, but the two door-rectangles slid apart and swung open. 

Sunlight poured in, dazzling my eyes and setting the jewels behind us on fire.

“Behold,” Grey said again.  “Aramalan.”

I blinked as my eyes adjusted again.  Then I got my first look at Arama, and gasped.


	3. The Golden City (Andie)

I gasped because I didn’t know the words – didn’t think there _were_ enough words in the whole English language – to describe just how dazzlingly, immensely _beautiful_ it was.

Even beautiful fell short.

The City stretched on as far as I could see, the tall buildings liberally interspersed with small-and-medium buildings.  Around the edges I could only barely make out, I could see vast stretches of fields.  Farms, I assumed.  But what stuck out the most was that the whole city seemed to be made of gold.  There wasn’t a single inch visible that didn’t gleam and glimmer, and in the hazy sunlight the effect was blinding.

I shielded my eyes from the glare and turned to Grey.  “This is _amazing_ ,” I said pitifully.  He was leaning against what passed for the door frame, looking at me look at the city.  He looked almost _proud_ , like an art student showing off his masterpiece.

“It’s not so bad down there,” he said, meaning the sun-glare.  “It’s just that we’re so high up, the light catches everything.”

“Follow the yellow brick road,” I joked, and he gave me another silly, lop-sided grin.  I almost added something about finding a wizard in an emerald palace at the end of it that I remembered: I was already _with_ the wizard.  “Okay, Dorothy.  Where to next?”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking around.  “Next, we go down into Arama and see if my father’s there.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said. 

 

For as high up above the city as we were, I half-expected it to take several hours at the least in order to get down into it.  The Aramalans, however, had thought their city out well and provided magic-guided gondolas that would take people to wherever they needed to go.  I learned to recognize the fact that when Grey was using his magic, his eyes glowed, turning that neon-purple colour.  It was getting less disturbing with repetition, and now that we were out of the direct sunlight I made a few other new discoveries as well.

His clothes weren’t black.  They were the same clothes he’d been wearing all along, but somehow in the sunlight filtering down between the buildings to the streets, they _glimmered_ with many different colours.  As he moved, I could see purple, green, and blue highlights in the fabric of his clothes.  In comparison, mine were oddly flat and dull.

“Hey, Grey,” I started, and then paused for a second.

When the second stretched into a minute and I still hadn’t found my voice, Grey turned around to look at me.  “What’s up Toto?”   He caught me staring at him, and a puzzled expression passed over his face momentarily.  It was quickly replaced with understanding.  “Oh, my clothes?  Everything my father and I own was bought here in Arama.  Everyone’s clothes look like this here.”  He looked over my Earth-store bought attire and frowned.  “You stand out rather more than I like.  We’ll have to get you some new things to wear.”

This proclamation was so sudden that at first, I was taken aback.  Then I found myself getting nervous.  I hated shopping, and I hated having people spend money on me.  “Why?”

“All we’re here to do is find my father,” he said.  “Then we’ll go back home.  Your clothing marks you as an outsider, someone who probably shouldn’t be here.  Nothing _too_ serious would happen if you were found out, but it would take time to explain, and more time for them to decide whether or not to allow you to continue walking around, or if they should keep you in the Waitings until I’m done.  That’s time we shouldn’t waste if it can be avoided; it’s easier to just get you a change of clothes.”

When he put it like that, it was clear that the plan had to proceed as he’d outlined it.  I still wasn’t happy with relying on someone else to buy for me.  “I don’t have any money,” I told him.

“It’s okay.  The shopkeepers won’t accept earth money anyway.  Consider it a gift.  They won’t look like much when you go home, but it’ll be something to remind you.”

He said it like I was going to need the reminder.  I’d never forget this foray into another world for as long as I lived.  I wondered off-hand if there were other wizards in our world, living under cover like the Fergussons, and if they’d object if I wrote a book about my experience here.  It was a little hard to believe that I was actually here, though, and not just dreaming.  Just to make sure, when Grey wasn’t looking at me, I pinched the underside of my arm discretely discreetly.  It hurt like hell, but when I opened my eyes, I was still there.  Grey looked back at me, waiting for my answer.  I still wasn’t happy about the fact that he’d be buying things for me, but I didn’t want to get stuck somewhere and miss out on whatever he was going to do to find his dad.  So I said, “thank you.”

He grinned at me again.  “We’re almost to the market now,” he said, and then eyed me speculatively before making a spot-on guess as to my clothing size.  I lifted an eyebrow at him, wondering how he managed to do that just by looking at me, and he flushed.  “I used to make clothes,” he said.

“You can sew, too?  A man of many talents.” 

His flush deepened, but he waved away the compliment.  “We’re here,” he said, and I looked up at our surroundings.  We were in an open square, surrounded on all sides by the taller buildings, but there were little kiosks and stands as well as what appeared to be stores I was more familiar with.  I couldn’t read any of the store names, but I felt like I should and my inability grated on my nerves. 

“You stay here,” Grey instructed me.  “I’m going to go get you some clothes and ask about my father.”   He moved easily into the shifting crowd, leaving me on the outskirts of the marketplace.  That was another weird thing about him; he never said ‘my dad.’  It was always ‘my father’ this and ‘my father’ that.  It was getting easier to listen to him, however.  I guessed I might be getting used to him in general. 

I watched him duck into the throng of people milling around, and took the opportunity to stare around at all the _colours._   Everything shone like his not-black clothes; vibrant orange and red cloths formed a sort of canopy over the marketplace proper.   The walls of the tall buildings – presumably holding more shops – were a kind of dull gold colour, which was what had made the city shine so when seen from above.  At ground levels the paint – or whatever it was – was infused with other colours, green and purple and aquamarine.  There were more colours visible than I had names for.

One colour stood out by its noticeable absence: white.

That was why the man walking towards me now caught and held my attention; his clothes were all white, with highlights of gold and silver that shimmered in the sunlight the same way Grey’s clothes shimmered purple and deep blue.  As he drew nearer, I realised that some of the gold glinting off him was jewelry. 

I expected that magical people who lived in their own magic city surrounded by mazes and mythical creatures guarding the halls would speak some form of foreign, magical language.  When the man in white called to me in perfectly serviceable – if a little archaic – English, I was thoroughly surprised.

“Ho, my lady.  How goes thy day?”

What was one supposed to say to _that_ , I wondered.  “Hello,” I tried.  “It goes, um, well.  And you?”

He tipped me a bow.  An actual bent-at-the-waist, eyes closed and head down bow.  “Long have my days been dark and my nights been empty ere I laid eyes on beauty such as thine,” he replied.  I smiled uncertainly at him, as if this made perfect sense to me.  I guessed Grey’s seventeenth-century-gentleman thing wasn’t unique here.  I also thought he might be flirting with me, though I couldn’t quite tell.  I was more used to things like ‘Hey, babe, you’re looking fine today.’ Or even the less controversial ‘A bunch of us are getting together after school.  Wanna come?’ – which depending on who the invitation was coming from might range anywhere from a sleepover at Hallie or Riha’s house all the way up to a party with illegal drinking and drug use going on.

The stranger seemed to sense my bemusement.  “I see from thy clothing that thou art a stranger to our land.  Welcome, my lady, to Aramalan.”  He sketched another bow, and I made an awkward not-quite-curtsy in return, holding the seam of my jeans in lieu of a skirt.  It wasn’t very graceful, and I wasn’t sure if a skirt would have helped it at all.

I was nervous, though.  This was exactly what Grey had been trying to avoid by leaving me here in the alley while he went on his little mission.  “Yes I am,” I said and paused.  Should I make excuses?  Just run for the mouth of the alley and hope Grey was on his way back?

“Might I ask thy name?”

I swallowed, and then smiled awkwardly.  “Andi-uh… Andrea.  Andrea Byrne.  What’s yours?”

He bowed again.  I almost let out a sigh, wondering if he thought he was on stage.  “Well met, Lady Byrne,” he said politely as he straightened.  “I am Raphaelim Firewind.  You may address me as Lim, if you wish.”

“Thank you,” I said, and tried inching away as discreetly as I could.  “It’s been nice meeting you, uh, Lim, but I really should be finding Grey – ”

“Andrea!”

I let out a startled shriek as Grey suddenly appeared at my side, glaring hard enough to set me on fire. 

“Have you completely lost your mind?” He demanded, and shifted his glare to Lim who scowled back at him.  I was surprised at the hostility in the air, and wondered if Grey knew him.  “We need to go.  _Now._ ”  Grey took my arm and tugged me ungently away from Lim, who stood as if frozen.  I stumbled once as he yanked, and nearly fell into him.  Fortunately for him, Grey had been raised a gentleman.  Even through his obvious anger and eagerness to get far away from Lim, he caught me before I could fall very far and set me back on my feet as he all but dragged me out of the alley.  I waved to Raphaelim as we vanished around the corner, and he waved back.

“Fare thee well, Lady Byrne!  Perchance we shall meet again soon,” he called.

Grey growled under his breath – actually _growled_ , like a dog.  “Fat chance,” he muttered.  I stared at him in shock.

“ _What_ has gotten into you, Grey?”

“Didn’t I tell you not to talk to anyone?” he demanded by way of answering.  I scowled at him.

“No.”

“Well, I should have.  What were you _thinking_ , talking to the likes of him?”

I answered him honestly, pissed off by his sudden temper tantrum.  “Hmm, well, actually I was thinking, ‘He talks strangely, and reminds me of Grey.  Am I being flirted with?’”

Grey scowled right back at me.  “He’s a mage.  Colour has _meaning_ here.  You promise me now, Andrea Byrne, that if you see anyone – or any _thing_ – else dressed in white, or painted white, or wearing gold jewelry, you stay _away_ from them.”

“No,” I said again, firmly.  “Not until you explain what the hell you’re talking about.”  I would never admit this, not even under pain of death, but I knew inside that I was being obstinate mostly because I was a little – okay, more than a little – I was _extremely_ miffed that I’d gone back to being Andrea Byrne.

He rolled his eyes and heaved a gusty sigh.  “Fine.  Now put this on,” he said, and shoved a bag into my arms.  By this time we were well away from the alley and people were beginning to stare.  Still not happy with his behaviour, I stopped.

“You want me to change right here in the middle of the street?” I snapped at him.  If we weren’t already causing a scene, that would _certainly_ attract attention.

“No!” Grey shouted.  “Go in here, find the damn restroom, and change your damn clothes!”  He shoved me into what looked like a restaurant.  It was empty save for a kind-faced girl who didn’t look much older than me, dressed in canary-yellow clothes.

“Excuse me,” I said, and she smiled.

“I heard,” she said pleasantly.  “Bathrooms are over this way.”  She pointed down a small hall that lead off the side of the main dining area and I went, gratefully.

“Thank you.”

Her smile widened.  “Do not mind Greyvaan.  He is usually grumpy.”

I paused in the doorway, and looked back at her.  “Greyvaan?” I asked, confused.

“Yes, Greyvaan Snow.  He is very unhappy now because he cannot find his father.”  She went back to wiping down the counter, and I made my way to the bathroom, considering.

Greyvaan Snow.  No wonder he’d changed it to Grey Fergusson, especially if he and his father were trying to fit into the human world – my world.

I changed into the clothes Grey had brought in the bag.  At the bottom of it was a small twist of paper that I picked up curiously.  A small note stuck out of it.

“ _Hope you like this. –G”_

I was grinning in spite of myself, unwrapping the gift.  I was surprised at first by the _beauty_ of it.  It appeared to be a hair clip, silver-coloured and with dozens of tiny blue-purple gems set into the flower design.  _Okay,_ I thought.  _I forgive you._   I pulled my clothes off and changed into the not-black ones Grey had provided.  I took the scrunchie out of my hair and fluffed it up, trying to figure out what to do with the strangely shaped clip.  Finally I twisted my hair up and held it with the clip.  In the ornate mirror, I could see the final effect.

It looked good.  I didn’t look anything like my normal self, with my hair fountaining out of the clip and my bangs framing my face – not to mention the fact that I never wore black, but it wasn’t quite black, when the light hit it, the highlights gleamed purple and silver and green. 

Grey was waiting for me outside the door, right where I’d left him.  I was feeling very pretty; the clothes were a tighter, more tailored fit than I was used to, and with my hair falling in waves instead of pulled into a tight ponytail, I felt very feminine. 

“Grey,” I said.

He turned.  “I’m sorry about that,” he said, and then looked up at me.  The expression that passed over his face was equally powerful and indecipherable.  “ _Andie?”_

I scowled.  It wasn’t _that_ much of a change. 

“You look good,” he told me.  “Do you… like the clip?” He sounded shy, which considering we’d only been… well, friends, for such a short time didn’t surprise me.  But it came on the wake of a pretty loud fight, too, and he hadn’t had any trouble manhandling me out of the alleyway and away from Raphaelim.

It suddenly occurred to me that he was acting strange because he _really_ thought I looked pretty.  That thought was fantastically uplifting, an extreme ego-boost.  “I love it,” I told him.  “You didn’t have to.  It looks expensive.”  I didn’t know anything about jewelry, but I was pretty sure that that many gems in something that looked like real silver would have been at the least a couple hundred dollars back home.

He shrugged noncommittally and didn’t answer.  “Let’s find somewhere  to eat,” he said instead.  “I’ve got a lot to tell you.”

 _Now that his temper tantrum was over,_ I filled in mentally, and followed him down the street.  Whatever scene we’d caused before had been forgotten, and we were totally ignored as we made our way down another alleyway a short distance away.

 

We were sitting in what resembled an outdoor café.  I looked around, and leaned in to whisper.  “Is it safe here?”

He shot me a puzzled look.  “Is what safe?”

“Eating,” I hissed.  I didn’t want to offend anyone who might be nearby.  “In all the stories, eating on the Other Side will trap you there forever.”

He chuckled.  “Oh.  No, it won’t.  It’s safe.”

Reassured, we dug into the meal.  As it was winding down, Grey took a deep breath.  “Okay,” he started.  “When I was out getting your clothes, I asked about my father.  He definitely passed through the market, but didn’t stop and talk to anyone, so all I’ve got to go on is the direction people saw him walking.  Mintra said he was in a hurry and looked nervous.  That combined with Firewind’s presence in the city is quite worrisome.”

I thought about this.  I still didn’t know what the problem with white was, or why he’d reacted so violently to Lim’s talking to me.   “The only thing we can do is chase after your father, then,” I said.  “And speaking of Lim, would you mind explaining why you _freaked the hell out_ on me back there?”

He bit his lower lip, looking for a moment like a little kid.  I tried to keep this from making me feel sorry for him, but the look, combined with the dazzling gorgeous hair clip gift, made it impossible.  He might have dragged me into this place, but it was an adventure of a lifetime, _and_ he’d appealed to my inner girl by buying me pretty things.  I supposed I was going to have to readjust my view of people buying me things, since I didn’t want to deny how much I was enjoying the things he’d gotten me.  I’d just find a way to pay him back for them later. 

“I’m a wizard,” he said finally.  “You already know that.  What I didn’t tell you is that there are other powerful magic-users here in Arama.”

I interrupted him with a sudden reflection.  “I thought everyone could do magic here.”

“Minor magic,” he admitted.  “Things like bursts of power useful for opening doors or powering the lifts, but not good enough for anything more serious.  But also, as in any society, there are those of us who rise above the rest.  And among us there are those people who use their immense power for… well, for lack of a better word, they use their power for evil.  For personal gain.  They’re called mages.”

From the look on his face, I was pretty sure my thoughts were clear on _my_ face.

“Coming as you do from a world filled with murders, rapists, women who kill their children – all evil things – how can you deny the existence of evil magic-users?” he asked. 

I was silent for a long time, considering this.  If I could believe in his magic – his magic that I’d seen with my own eyes, and couldn’t, therefore, write off as a figment of imagination – I actually had no grounds to dismiss the fact that the other magic users were perfectly capable of evil magic.

Actually, for that matter, I had nothing but his word telling me that the mages _were_ evil; of course, if the wizards were the bad ones then they’d paint their enemies in the worst possible light.  But I just couldn’t reconcile the image of an evil wizard with what I knew about Grey.  It wasn’t much, admittedly – I’d never even talked to him before tonight.  But he just didn’t seem the type.  I decided to trust him.

“You’re right,” I said at last, as I realised he was waiting for an answer.  “I’ll try to keep a more open mind about whatever.”  After all, unless I’d hit my head and was in a coma right now – though why my subconscious would send me on an adventure with Grey Fergusson, I didn’t have a clue – we’d already been transported to a totally different world, and Grey could do magic.  I could accept there were evil magic users.  “You said before that the colours here have meaning?” I prompted, and hoped I’d get a more thorough explanation.

His eyes lit up, pleased that I’d remembered that.  “Yes.  Certain people can only wear certain colours.  No one is more important than anyone else, except maybe the… well, I suppose you could call them the king and queen.  They’re not, really, but that’s the closest I can come.  The, uh, Royal Family is the only ones allowed to wear gold clothing.  They wear either gold or silver jewelry.  We wizards wear black, or other darker colours, and the high ranking of us wear silver jewelry.  The mages wear white, with gold accessories.  Healers wear green.  I know the shopkeepers around here wear only shades of blue, things like that.”

I felt like I could see all the colours circling my head like birds in a cartoon.  “It’s so confusing,” I said, trying to sort it out.  “Why is the jewelry important?”

“As a wizard, I am incapable of wearing gold.  It would burn me if I tried.  It’s something to do with the Metallourgos, and the spells they use to create the pure ore for the jewelry.  And the clothes.  They have no colour until I acquire them, so that Firewind and I could pick up the exact same outfit, but as soon as we claimed them, his would become white and mine would become black.  The fabric reacts to the magic in our bodies, so that even if I were to acquire a white suit, as soon as I made it mine it would become black.  I don’t know all the spells, I’m not a couturier.  But it never fails.” 

I hung my head in my hands, and looked up at him through the fall of my bangs.  “You’re not helping at all.  It’s still confusing.”  Less so, but that was more than I’d ever thought about needing to know. 

“Not really,” he said kindly.  I wanted to kick him, because I had the feeling suddenly that he was making fun of me in his head.  “But then, I’ve grown up with it.  You…” he sighed.  “You don’t have to help me look for my father, you know.”  He sounded hesitant.  I couldn’t have said for sure, but some part of me knew that deep down, he really wanted me to come with him. 

Maybe it was wishful thinking on my part.  “I want to,” I said.  “Besides, what good are the clothes if they just turn black in Earth’s light?  And the hair clip.  It’s so beautiful, and you didn’t have to get it for me.  _And_ you brought me here in the first place.  It’s like an adventure, one that I usually read about in books or on the video games I play.  Think of it as an exchange of favours.  You brought me here – ”

“-Rather against my will,”

“So I’ll help you find your father,” I finished, ignoring him and flashed my brightest smile.  I’d never really had an opportunity to look into his eyes before, so I didn’t know what colour they were in the real world.  Here they were a soft purple colour, almost lavender. 

“Have your eyes always been purple?”

“Yes,” he said.  “Have yours?”   

“What?”

“What?” He shook his head.  “I must be seeing things.  Maybe it’s the tunic.”

I touched the corner of my eyes, wondering what he could possibly be talking about.  “You’re _still_ not making any sense,” I complained.  The soft moment was broken between us, and I found myself yawning.  I had no idea what time it was here, but we’d been on the move for a couple hours already. 

He grinned at me suddenly, and I wondered how I’d never noticed how friendly he was, how – well, how _cute_ he was.  Then I remembered that he walked through the hallways at school with headphones over his ears and his sweater’s hood up over his head all the time.  In class, he sat in the very back and never talked. 

Then I remembered what we’d originally been talking about.  “So, you really think Lim was evil?”

He shuddered visibly at my use of Firewind’s nickname.  “I don’t _think_ so,” he said.  “I _know_ so.”

This bothered me.  I’d been raised to give everyone at least one chance before hating them;  another reason I’d argued so vehemently with my friends over whether or not Grey was a freak.  Now I knew why he acted the way he did, though I’d never be able to share it.  He’d sworn me to silence over it, and I remembered the twisting sensation.  I wondered how this adventure was going to affect our dynamics at school – Riha and Hallie would never accept him into our group, but I didn’t want to just abandon him, either.  I pushed thoughts of what would happen after to the back of my mind and refocused on the conversation at hand.  “Why?  What’s he ever done to you?”

“Nothing, yet.”  He was scowling at me now, irritated that I was being so nice about Lim, I guessed.  “It’s what I know he’s done and what he’s capable of.”

I sighed, rolling my eyes.  “Even _I’m_ capable of terrible things.  Does that mean you’re going to hate me?”

He exploded.  “No!  You’re absolutely _impossible._   You’ve never _done_ anything – ”

“Yet,” I broke in.  “Your racism is silly and unfounded.”

“Ever,” he shot back.  “Your clothes tell me you’re not capable of it.”

This was getting to be too much.  His mood swings were kinda giving me whiplash here, and as much as I wanted to help him, I needed to get some sleep, and maybe a break from his insanity.  “You’re crazy!” I threw myself out of the chair and pushed through the milling crowd outside the restaurant.  One glance back at him showed that he hadn’t been expecting me to do that, because he was still sitting at the small table in the courtyard, staring after me in shock.  I watched over my shoulder as his brain kicked back into gear and he stood up to chase after me. 

“Toto, wait! Hey!  _Andrea!_ ”

People parted before me like the Red Sea for Moses.  In my peripheral vision I realised they were dipping their heads, almost bowing as I passed, but I was too frustrated with Grey to pay much attention to what that might mean.

White invaded my vision.  I looked up, spitting mad and ready to chew out whoever it was for getting in my way, when I recognized Lim’s smiling face.  He was extremely handsome, with his gold hair and dark eyes above the shining white tunic. 

The argument with Grey fresh in my mind, I was determined to be as nice to Lim as possible, and maybe determine for myself whether or not he was guilty as accused.

“Hi Lim,” I said cheerfully.  Behind me I could hear Grey forcing his way through the crowd.  “I don’t want to talk to him right now.  Is there somewhere we can go?  Your place, maybe?”  It probably wasn’t the greatest idea – my mom’s reminders about not talking to strangers rang loudly through my mind – but he _seemed_ friendly enough and I didn’t want to think about Grey right now, much less even spend more time with him. 

Lim, for his part, looked startled.  “Of course,” he said.  “Yes, I understand how obnoxious those with the wizard’s mark can be.  Present company excluded, of course.”

Something seemed different, and then I realised what it was.  “You’re talking more normally.”

“Am I?”  He was puzzled.  I remembered how Grey’s speech had gradually become more normal as well.  Maybe it was because they were hanging out with me; I didn’t know.

I could hear Grey behind us, getting closer, and looped my hand into Lim’s arm and smiled at him.  “Let’s go.”


	4. The Golden City (Grey)

I saw the clearly defined question in her eyes as I made an accurate ‘guess’ as to her clothing size.   “I used to make clothes,” I told her, which wasn’t entirely untrue, but I let her think I’d guessed by sight.  She didn’t need to know that I’d taken a psychic peek at her clothes.  It might tell her that I could look at other things without her knowledge.  I _never_ would – my father had taught me better than that, though I knew that there were boys in the high school I attended who would have given their left arm for the ability to see under clothes – but the idea had a tendency to make people nervous.

We’d come into the city by a side street leading to the main thoroughfare.  I glanced over and realised that we were getting into the city proper.  Another look revealed just how much she’d stand out if I took her through the streets.

“We’re here,” I said.  It felt wonderful to be back in Arama, where the colours were so bright and shone in the mid-afternoon sunlight.  I turned to Andie, and watched her looking around her, taking in the sights like a child.  Her mouth was slightly open in wonder, and her eyes were wide.  I smiled to myself, and hesitated to interrupt.  Part of me wanted desperately to know what she thought of my home – the home of my heart, at any rate, for all that my father and I had made our physical home on Earth - but I repressed the urge to ask.  “You stay here,” I told her instead.  “I’m going to get you some clothes and ask about my father.”

She nodded her agreement, and I left her standing there, wondering if she was going to be alright on her own.  It wouldn’t take me too long, and she was an intelligent girl.  Of all the people who could have come with me through the doorway, I was beginning to be glad it was her.  I knew what the other students at school said about me behind my back.  They were infinitely unimportant, and for the most part I didn’t allow their words to affect me.  But Andrea Byrne was something else. 

I’d just never noticed before.

My father had told me a few days before that he thought all was not well with Arama.  Then she’d come into my yard – despite all the wards and charms designed to keep people _off_ our property – and told me the door had been opened.  I _knew_ my father wouldn’t have gone to Arama without telling me – but then I had to backtrack, because he _had._

And now we were here.  And Andrea knew about me.  A girl I went to _school_ with knew my secret.  I’d bound her not to reveal it to anyone else, but she would always know.

I ducked into the crowd.  Instantly, people were stopping me.  “Greyvaan!  So good to see you again.  How’s your father?”

I gave as swift answers that courtesy would dictate and hurried on about my errand.  My first stop was to see Mintra.  She’d been a friend of the family since before I’d been born, and she was always great fun.

She came out from behind her counter when I walked through the door, and enveloped me in a hug.  “How are you my darling?  I saw your father just a few hours ago; he didn’t stop to chat however and just rushed through the Market.  And it was very strange,” she added.  “He looked worried about something.”

Good old Mintra.  I didn’t even have to ask.  “You are amazing,” I told her, kissing her cheek.  “I came in here intending to ask about him, as well as acquire some clothes for –” I paused, wondering how much I could say.  Well, if we were about to walk through the entire marketplace anyway, everyone would know shortly.  “For a companion of mine,” I finished, and Mintra’s eyes glinted.

“A companion,” she repeated.  “I see.”

I felt my face heat up.  “Not like that,” I hurried to assure her.  “She’s just a friend.”  

“Ohh, aye, aye, I know all about friends,” Mintra sang.  “Just remember to use protection when you get intimate, because otherwise–”

Horrified, I cut her off, and she dissolved into laughter.  I gave her Andie’s clothing size, and she disappeared through the back door, cackling.  My face was so hot that I could feel it when I put my hand over my eyes.  I was going to have to struggle to get that mental image out of my head – if Andie realised what I was thinking, and I had no doubt that if I went out there right now, she would, women had an intense sort of intuition when it came to that sort of thing, she’d tear my head off and worry about getting back home later.

To distract myself, I looked around at the jewelry and other accessories that Mintra had on display.  One in particular drew my attention to it.  I gave everything else a cursory look, but kept looking back at the clip.

When Mintra reappeared she was holding a bag, presumably containing the promised clothes.  I picked up the clip and waved it at her.

“How much for this as well?”

She clucked at me.  “It’s all on the house, darling,” she said, and winked as she took the clip from me.  Probably sensing something, she wrapped the clip separately and tucked it into the bottom of the bag.  I snatched a piece of paper off the counter and scribbled a note to Andie on it, tucking the scrap into the paper twist containing the hair clip.  I’d set the wrapped clip back on top of the bundle of clothes, but Mintra retucked it into the bottom.

“You’ll want to keep that a secret,” she told me slyly. 

“I will,” I said, wondering what she saw in my future.  Women were a mystery to me.  “You’re sure I don’t owe you anything?”  I reached for the pouch I always carried, the one that had my money and other important things.  Mintra clucked again, tsking with her teeth.

“I’m positive.  Now get out of here and go rescue your lady,” she said, and waved me out.  I clutched the bag and thanked her before scurrying out of the shop.  _Rescue?_

I caught sight of the white and gold before I saw Andrea.  My heart sank into my stomach and my pulse leaped into my throat.  _Not the mages,_ I pleaded silently.  When she came into view, talking to him, my mind went black with fury – and not a little bit of worry.

“ _Andrea!”_

She let out a small scream and for a moment I feared that Firewind had tried something.  Then as she turned around, one hand over her chest, I realised that I’d just startled her.  I didn’t care.  “Have you completely lost your mind?” I demanded, forgetting that she didn’t know what mages were capable of.  “We need to go.  _Now._ ”  She didn’t seem to be moving, so I grabbed hold of her arm and practically hauled her out of the alley.

“Bye, Lim,” she called to him.  My gut clenched.  I glanced over my shoulder and saw him waving at her, a pleasant expression on his face. _Lying snake,_ I thought.  The smile was a massive change from the last time I’d seen him, wearing a smug smile as he broke one of my most prized possessions - a snow globe that would tell your fortune.  I’d created it myself, and that was the day his clothes turned white and he turned his back on our friendship.  My father had sat me down and explained to me what the white signified – before that moment, I’d never seen it. 

“Fare thee well, Lady Byrne!” he said.  “Perchance we shall meet again soon!”

Not if I could help it. 

Andrea was giving me a look that said she clearly thought I’d lost my mind.  Since I was thinking the same thing about her, I didn’t let this bother me.  Now that she was safely away from Firewind, the anger won out over my worry.

“ _What_ has gotten into you, Grey?”

I let her go and whirled around to face her.  “Didn’t I tell you not to talk to anyone?”

“No,” she said petulantly. 

“Well, I should have.  What were you _thinking_ , talking to the likes of him?”

She rattled off some snappy answer, anger brightening her eyes.  I mostly ignored it, focusing more on what I was about to tell her.  It was the same thing my father had told me so long ago, when Firewind and I had broken apart.

“He’s a mage.  Colour has _meaning_ here.  You promise me now, Andrea Byrne.”  I twined power around the words.  “That if you see anyone – or any _thing –_ else dressed in white, or painted white, or wearing gold jewelry, you stay _away_ from them.”

                “No,” she said again, stunning me.  How _stupid_ could one person _be?_ “Not until you explain what the hell you’re talking about.”

“Fine,” I said, and shoved the bag at her.  “Put this on.”

She held it like it was a poisonous snake that was about to bite her, and paused.  “You want me to change right here in the middle of the street?” She demanded.  I took a quick glance around, and realised we were beginning to attract attention. 

“No!” I shouted.  “Go in here, find the damn restroom, and change your damn clothes!” 

She gave me a look that could scrape off skin, and I nudged her towards the door of the nearby restaurant.  I leaned up against the wall beside the door and rubbed a hand over my face, pulling my hair back through my fingers.  I glanced up at the sky and saw the sun beginning to dip down; it was getting late, and we would need to find somewhere to stay for the night soon.  Now that I’d had some time to think and not just react, I realised how I must have come across to Andie, and why she’d reacted the way she had.  I told myself I was going to apologise as soon as I saw her again.

*

“So I’ll help you find your father,” she said.  I felt a glow of warmth in my chest at her words, knowing that she was in no way obligated to do anything, and which intensified at the soft smile she granted me.  Her head tilted curiously as her stare narrowed.  “Have your eyes always been purple?”

I grinned at her, suddenly guessing what was going through her mind.  “Yes.”  She was so close now that I realised hers were too.  I didn’t think they had been before.  “   Have yours?”

She blinked.  “What?”

I was startled.  “What?”  I shook my head, and they were grey again.  “I must be seeing things,” I muttered.  “It might be the tunic.”  I heard that grey eyes reflected colours and changed in appearance based on what one was wearing or surrounded by.  In the fading sunlight, her tunic was a resplendent violet, and it was entirely possible that her eyes had been grey all along, and the colours reflecting from around us had made them look purple to me.

“You’re still not making any sense,” she said, and yawned.  I realised that with the time difference between the two worlds and all the running around we’d done since we got here were beginning to take their toll. I was about to suggest we find a hostel or an inn, and settle down for the night when she interrupted my thoughts. 

“So you really think Lim was evil?”

I recalled dear old Lim breaking my globe for no reason beyond pure malice.  I remembered his dark smile and the pleasure he took in my pain over its loss.  A small thing, to be sure, but it had been mine.  And the only reason he destroyed it was to hurt me.  I shuddered at the memory, and shook my head.  “I don’t _think_ so.  I _know_ so.” 

“Why?” she shot back.  “What’s he ever done to you?”

I couldn’t tell her about our past.  I didn’t know her _that_ well yet, for all she was probably one of the first people I’d been close to in years.  It was just … too personal.  And with Firewind sticking his nose into our business, too close as well.  “Nothing, yet,” I lied.  “It’s what I know he’s done, and what he’s capable of.”

She didn’t look convinced.  “Even _I’m_ capable of terrible things.  Does that mean you’re going to hate me?” 

My temper erupted.  “No!  You’re absolutely _impossible._    You’ve never done _anything_ –”

“Yet,” she calmly interjected.  “Your racism is silly and unfounded.”

I was absolutely furious.  Her eyes were purple again, and I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t an accident.  _How_ had she gotten past our wards?  _How_ had she seen the doorway, much less gotten through it?  In my anger, I let out too much information – more than I’d been willing to share right away.  Not until I knew more about her.  “Ever,” I said.  “Your clothes tell me you’re not capable of it.”

And as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew I was right.  Her eyes were glowing, and I knew – _knew_ – that if she’d been as _normal_ as she pretended, the tunic and trousers I’d gotten for her at Mintra’s would have turned grey.  But they hadn’t. 

My thoughts had distracted me from what was going on, because the next thing I knew she was up and out of her seat, throwing her napkin down.  “You’re crazy!”  She burst into the crowd of shoppers and vanished.  I sat where I was for a few moments, unable to believe her.

She abandoned the only person she knew and struck out on her own in a world that was utterly foreign to her with no resources and no plan.  And _I_ was the crazy one?

In the distance, I could see Firewind, shopping and looking for all the world like he belonged there.  I sprang after her.  “Toto, wait!”  She didn’t pause.  “Hey!  _Andrea!”_

The crowd, which I’d hoped would slow her down, simply saw her clothes and recognized her aura of anger and got out of her way.  They rejoined behind her, and ended up slowing _me_ down.  I wasn’t angry enough to broadcast the way she was, and I had to push people out of the way.  Most people apologized and moved on their own when they realised what I was. 

I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but the sight of her – my only real friend since Raphaelim had abandoned me – standing next to the man I hated more than anything else was enough to turn my vision red.  The world around me narrowed until it was just the three of us, and I saw with painful acuity how she smiled at him, took his arm just like a gentleborn lady, and moved away with him, tossing one hate-filled glance in my direction before the crowd swallowed them. 

It was nothing compared to the sympathetic look Firewind tossed over his shoulder as he led her away.  


	5. Skyport (Andie)

Grey’s anger was rolling off him in near-tangible waves.  I could literally feel it all the way through the crowded streets.  Lim seemed to find it amusing, and for a second I wondered if I’d really done the right thing, ditching Grey.  I was mad, but I didn’t want to do anything stupid. 

Lim took a deep breath.  “So,” he began.  “Where are you from?”

“Virginia Beach.”  It was such a banal, first-blind-date question that I was taken off guard by it.

He smiled.  “This… Virginia Beach, it is a nice place to live?”

“I suppose so.  I’ve never lived anywhere else.  How do you like living in Arama?”  Now that we were well away from Grey, it felt more awkward than witty to be walking with him.

“It is wonderful,” Lim replied, spreading his hands dramatically.  “Could you not imagine a more beautiful place to exist?”

I really couldn’t, and told him so.  He beamed, as though he were personally responsible for Arama’s beauty.  After a while, the conversation petered out and Lim looked up suddenly at a clock.  We were at the other end of the market and the forum was overlooked by a massive structure that looked like a cathedral.

“Oh, dear,” he said nervously, sounding for all the world like an old man.  “I am afraid I must leave you now.  I must be somewhere very shortly; I almost lost track of the passing time.  Your company has been most pleasant,” he added.  “I sincerely hope that this will not be the last time I see you while you are visiting Arama.”

I smiled in spite of myself.  We hadn’t gone very far, and the conversation had been diverting, if not precisely involved.  “Thank you,” I said.  “If it’s at all possible, I’ll see you again before I go home.”  He bent and kissed the back of my hand before vanishing into the crowd.  Left on my own, it suddenly occurred to me what a bad idea that had actually been, to leave Grey behind.  Well, we’d find each other at some point, I told myself.  I wasn’t going to leave the massive market, and what good was being a wizard if you couldn’t even find someone?

Some of the items for display in the windows of the shops caught and drew my attention.   While I was moving towards them, I heard Grey’s name and stopped to eavesdrop.

“I noticed Greyvaan Snow is back in Arama.  Didn’t some rumours go around just recently regarding the Snows?” 

It was a woman bedecked entirely in pink from her hair down, I noticed.  Even her eyes were pink.  I wondered where pink fit in to the wizard hierarchy of colours.

Her companion was dressed in pale lavender, and was a little less eye-bleeding to look at.  “Oh yes.  About Antrei’s involvement with the rebellion.  He was here earlier, too.  Analal saw him; said he was in a hurry.  Probably on official rebellion business –”

I couldn’t help myself, and interrupted them.  “Excuse me,” I said.  “What rebellion?”

The two gossipmongers turned to face me, both wearing unfriendly expressions on their faces.  They paused as they took in my clothes.

“I’m new around here,” I explained hastily, wondering what sort of rumours would be going around about _me_ next.  Their faces cleared and Pinky smiled, a marked change from a moment before.

“It’s not so much a rebellion as it is, well –”

“The brink of civil war,” her companion interjected.  I felt both my eyebrows go up.  Grey hadn’t even hinted that things were so serious here.  I suddenly wondered if it was a good idea for me to be here; this wasn’t anything to do with me, and the last thing I wanted to do was get involved with a real battle. 

Especially since here it would probably involve magic.

“Well,” Pinky continued.  “You know about the ongoing hostility between mages and wizards, of course.”

“Of course she does,” Miss Lavender said, giggling and gesturing towards my tunic.  Pinky flushed, turning her face pink to match the rest of her.  The sight of all that pink was almost nauseating.

“Of course.  Well, the rumours are saying that the mages have done something – nobody knows what – so horrific that the wizards are only a breath of wind away from declaring an all-out war against them, either as punishment or revenge.”

“That’s terrible,” I said, thinking of Grey and his father fighting in a _war._   And I knew they would be involved, if it happened.  I didn’t know Mr. Fergusson that well, but my mother was always saying that kids are a reflection of the parents.  If Grey was so involved in just the rivalry between mages and wizards, if his father was active in the war, Grey would be too.

“Many people won’t come to market anymore.  Even more are leaving the city altogether.  What’s your name, anyway?”   Pinky looked interested. 

“Oh.  I’m Andrea-uh, Byrne…tree.”  With Grey shouting my name every five minutes the ruse wouldn’t last, but I felt awkward about giving my real name to these people.

Luckily, Miss Lavender was either hard of hearing or completely stupid.  “Andreanna Burntree?  What a beautiful name!  I am Jelliey and this is my best friend, Peenalut.”

So, Pinky’s real name was Peenalut.  I preferred Pinky, which at least didn’t sound like a snack.  “Nice to meet you both.  I need to go though,” I said. “I need to find Grey…vaan.”

Both sets of eyebrows on the ladies went up.  “You know Greyvaan?” Jelliey sounded surprised. 

“Yes,” I said, and briefly wondered what _new_ rumours I was going to set off, as well as what kind of reputation he had here.  “He’s my – uh – boyfriend.  But we got separated in the crowd.”  And if it was this crowded after people had been leaving and not coming back – if Pinky’s information was really correct – I would have hated to try to fight my way through it when it was as busy as normal.  I could see by the expressions on their faces that they’d never heard the word ‘boyfriend’ before, and I bowed quickly, moving away before they could capture me into any more back-and-forth conversation. 

“It was nice to meet you, Lady Wizard!” Peenalut said.  I barely heard her, as I was already turning away to find Grey again.  After all that, he wasn’t difficult to find.  The fury was still rolling off him waves and he was coming towards me.  I’d already forgotten why I’d been so irritated with him before.  By now I was more interested in hearing what he knew about this almost-war that was supposedly brewing.

“Have you lost whatever wits you originally possessed, girl?”  As opening arguments went, it was alright.  He took me up by the shoulders and shook me.  “Do you have any idea how _dangerous_ that was, how absolutely _foolish_ you’ve been?”

I ignored him.  “Shut up, Grey.  I think your father might be in trouble.”

He ignored me right back.  “No more trouble than you were, you idiot girl.  I was afraid I was going to find you in pieces somewhere!”

“No, you’re not listening to me.  There’s talk of a civil war between the mages and the wizards, and your dad’s right in the middle of it.”

This drew him up short.  “War, already?”  His words were quiet, as though he were speaking more to himself than me.  At least I’d managed to interrupt his tirade.  Hanging out with him was less like having a friend and more like being with a spinster aunt. 

“That’s what the word on the street is,” I said.  He shot me a curious glance, clearly wondering how I’d gotten the information, but it quickly changed to a troubled look. 

“Then it is more important than ever that we find my father.”

 

We found out that Antrei had left the city altogether.  Grey looked both grim and amused, though he wouldn’t tell me the reason behind either. 

“You still have a chance to go back,” he told me.  “I could return you to your home, and seek my father on my own.”

“No way!  I don’t want to sit around my stupid, normal house waiting for you to come back.  What if the war breaks out, and you never come home?  I’d never know what had happened to you.  Besides,” I added, my hands on my hips.  “You need me.”

“What?” He looked genuinely startled.

“You do!  If not for me, you’d never have known war was so close.”

“I’d have found out,” he muttered grumpily.  “Sooner or later.”

“Chyeah.  Probably later, when you were right in the middle of it.”

He seemed thoughtful, and I wondered what he was thinking about.  “Very well,” he said finally, and the boyish, lopsided grin flashed across his face.  “Now we must find transport to the Wizard City.”

“I thought this _was_ the Wizard City.”  I gestured at the brilliantly coloured buildings that surrounded us.

“Not entirely,” Grey said unhelpfully.  “Mages like Firewind also reside here, as do many other races.  The Wizard City is for wizards alone.  Mages and all the rest are absolutely denied entrance.  It’s possible you will be denied, though not likely.”  His eyes flickered down at my clothes – what had better have been my clothes, because if he’d decided on now to start checking me out, I would probably hit him – but he didn’t otherwise explain his comment. 

“Is there a mage city?”

Grey shrugged.  “I’m not sure.  If there is, obviously, I’ve never been there.  I imagine it works the same as the Wizard City, if it exists.”

We walked in silence for a while, and I was completely lost by the time we arrived at the Skyport.  Grey left me while he went to book passage on one of the airships – I had visions of video games dancing through my head, and was fairly vibrating with excitement.  I might not be able to share any of this with anyone, but it would be one of my favourite memories for the rest of my life.  I loved flying on airplanes, and being on ships, and of course, role-playing video games were one of my favourite things in the _world_ and so the idea of actually flying through the air on a _real_ airship was pretty much a dream come true.  Not for the first time, I was glad I’d managed to talk Grey into letting me stay with him.  He was frustrating, annoying, and pissed me off seemingly every time I turned around – though I’m pretty sure I was pissing him off right back – but this was the chance of a _lifetime._  

So I stood off to one side while Grey talked with the attendant, and watched the people who were coming and going.  The colours represented were like walking through a kaleidoscope; there were people wearing the same not-black clothes that I was, and a few of them wearing the white that Grey told me signified a mage, but mostly there were vibrant purples, greens, yellows, pinks, reds, and blues.  There was no real order that I could see to the colours, or where they went; it seemed that Grey’s assertion that this was a neutral city was correct, even if the two ladies I’d overheard thought that the whole thing was on the brink of war. 

I did noticed, while I was watching, that those wearing black and those wearing white avoided one another as if they weren’t even in the same room.  How they managed to maneuver around one another without giving the impression that they were detouring from their intended route was something that not even several minutes of observation on my part could figure out. 

After what seemed like an hour, Grey was heading back towards me.  He was also doing the veering-around to avoid the people dressed in white, and I guessed that maybe by the time they were five years old it was probably an ingrained habit.   

 “We’ve got about an hour to wait before the ship going to Wizard City takes off,” Grey said.  “You might want to take a nap, or you can wait until we get there.  My father keeps a house on the island we can use if you’d rather.”

I was so excited by what I was seeing – and about to do – that I’d forgotten about being tired.  “I think I’m on my second wind,” I told him.  “I’m not tired at all right now.  I’ll probably want to crash for a while when we get to your house, though.”

He accepted this, and then stifled a yawn.  “Speak for yourself,” he said when he’d caught his breath.  “I’m going to take a quick nap before we head out.”  And he settled himself onto one of the benches and was asleep within minutes.  I envied him the ease with which he fell asleep; I wasn’t bad enough to qualify myself as having actual insomnia, but it usually took about an hour before I could fall asleep, no matter how tired I was. 

With Grey down for the count, for at least the next hour or so, I took to wandering around the Skyport.  The shopkeepers and attendants were happy to talk about their jobs, and gossip with me about the rumours of war that were on everyone’s minds.

“No one’s exactly sure what the mages are up to,” one attendant told me.  “But they’ve been disappearing out of the cities and the ones we do see are always in a hurry, buying up the weirdest things, and going to the weirdest places.  A few of them have been trying to get into Wizard City and almost got themselves tossed off the side of the ship.  Whatever it is, it’s a mighty big problem.  The Wizards have been gathering in councils – I thought that’s what Antrei was up to, but Greyvaan said he didn’t tell anyone where he was going, which is severely out of character for Antrei.  Are you very familiar with him?” She actually paused long enough for me to shake my head and answer.

“I’ve lived next door to them for a while now, but I never spent much time with Grey until recently,” I said, which was the perfect truth. 

“He’s such a nice young man,” the attendant said with a wink.  “Lots of other girls have been trying to get his attention, but he’s not one to pay much mind to any of them.  Mm, yes, that’s why we were all so surprised when you came in with him, you see.”

For some reason this fact startled me.  It made sense that Grey would have a life beyond the one he presented on earth, especially with how unpopular he was at school – but then his unpopularity was his own fault, if he’d tried harder people might have made more of an effort to get to know him – but to be told so blatantly that he could have had his pick of any of the girls here was kind of shocking.

Especially since he was actively choosing to spend time with me. 

I smiled at the attendant, and pried for more details.  “So no one knows what exactly the mages are up to, but everyone is pretty sure they’re up to _something._ ” This was a recap of what I already knew.   “And what are the wizards doing about it?”

She smiled back.  “No one knows that for sure either.  This whole thing is based on a lot of rumours, and things people have seen, but enough people have seen enough to know that there is absolutely definitely _something_ going on.  Whether or not it’s as serious as they’re all making it out to be has yet to be seen.  I hope that we don’t end up right in the middle of a war without realising it, though that has happened before.  Oh?  You look confused.  You don’t remember this?”

“I’ve been away,” I lied.  I hated lying, but apparently everyone was going to assume I was from here, and then wonder why I knew nothing.  Her face cleared, and she smiled again.

“Yes, it wasn’t that long ago.  It wasn’t an outright war, but a lot of people thought it might come to it.  It was the mages stirring up trouble.  They do you know, because they’re unhappy being stigmatized, but, as I’ve always said my dear, all they need to do is stop behaving so abominably, you know what I mean?  If a group has a reputation for drowning kittens and performing black magic, well, of course the majority of people aren’t going to want to have anything to do with them.  I generally don’t have to deal with them, working as I do for the Wizard City port, but I have to see them, and know that some of them are going to go home and sacrifice something for its blood or its heart, all in the name of a more powerful spell.”

Her hands moved the entire time she was speaking.  It was like watching two little birds chase after one another set to the cadence of her words, and I found that I had to focus on her face or else lose track of what she was saying.  Grey hadn’t said anything about mages sacrificing things, or performing black magic.  I wondered if the term was the same here as it was on earth.  Then I considered Lim doing something like that, and found that I could imagine it without problem.  I didn’t know if I was ready to apologise to Grey over the incident in the market, but I at least made a mental note to myself to not talk to Firewind again if I saw him.   Or if I did end up talking to him, I’d make sure I got some answers out of him, like why he and Grey seemed to actively hate one another.  All of the mages I’d seen in the Skyport pretty much ignored the wizards, and vice versa.  But from what I’d seen of Grey and Lim, the two of them went out of their way to make a nasty face at one another at the least. 

That spoke volumes about their past, but not enough for me to figure it out – just to know that there _was_ a past there.  Maybe I’d be able to get it out of Grey while we were on the airship.

“Oh, dear my darling, your ship will be taking off very shortly.  Why don’t you go wake up Greyvaan and find out if he needs a drink or something before you go?”  The attendant had grey hair and her face was heavily lined by age, but there was still something essentially feminine about the wink she gave me.  I felt my face heat up and glanced away, hoping she wouldn’t see it and say anything.

I left the attendant and headed to what smelled like a café across the Skyport.  I could see Grey still sleeping, and wondered if his internal alarm clock had failed him, or if the attendant was just giving me extra time.  The shopkeeper in the café looked at me expectantly.

“I don’t have any money with me,” I said.  “I’m just looking.”  I wasn’t hungry, but I was thirsty now that I was looking at their beverages, and I wished I’d thought to wake Grey up before coming over.

“You’re wit’ Greyvaan Snow,” the girl said.  “You’re fine, order whatever you want.  The Snows have standin’ credit wit’ the Skyports.”

I still felt bad about using other people’s money, but I rationalized it by telling myself that I could get a part time job to pay them back for whatever they had to spend on me here.  I ordered what smelled like coffee but looked like milk for Grey, and a juice drink for myself.   The girl smiled at me, and leaned in.

“You’re a lucky gi’l,” she said.  “Lotsa gi’ls been wanting to get wit’ Greyvaan Snow, but none of them succeeded.  My friend Ilianna will scream when she hears that he came through the Skyport with sucha pretty gi’l like you.” 

I blinked at her.  “Um,” I said.  “Thanks?”

“He’s a great guy,” she said, waving it off.  ‘Guy’ sounded like ‘goi.’  As far as accents went, I wasn’t any good at identifying them by the sound – once I’d been told where a person was from I could usually place it afterwards, but there was something about the way she talked that reminded me of some of the girls back home.  I wondered if she was a teenager, working a part time job to pay someone back for helping her, and felt a flush of warmth.

This place wasn’t really so different from home.  _I could get used to staying here,_ I thought, and then nearly dropped the drinks.  It was impossible.  I didn’t belong here, and once we’d found Grey’s dad, I was going home.  I didn’t belong here, and I certainly wouldn’t be staying.

Through the large skylight in the ceiling, I saw one of the airships taking off, and wistfulness wrenched me.  I really could get used to it, though.

I knelt down beside Grey and pushed the thoughts of going and staying out of my head.  I was here now, and that was the important part.  “Hey, Dorothy,” I said, hoping it was loud enough to wake him up.  He stirred, and I held up the coffee drink.  “Wakey wakey, sleepyhead,” I sang, and grinned when he blearily blinked at me.  He was cute when he was waking up.

“Huh?  Andrea?  Where… Oh.”  He woke up enough to remember where he was, and gratefully accepted the drink.  “Where’d you get this?”

I pointed at the café.  “They said since I was with you, I could use your credit.  I hope you don’t mind.”

He lifted the wide mug at me in a toast.  “I certainly don’t.  How’d you know what to order?”

“I asked.”  I laughed at the surprised look on his face, and felt a smile pulling at my lips.  _I really kind of like him…when he’s not being a complete jerk._  

He yawned again, and then glanced up at the board.  I just noticed it then; it looked like a normal screen you’d find at an earth airport, but instead of being electronic – I wasn’t sure if they had electricity here, and resolved to ask Grey about it – it was just a wooden board, and the names of destinations and ships chased themselves across it.  Magic, I guessed.

I felt eyes on me, and glanced over my shoulder.  I didn’t see anyone watching me, but the sensation didn’t fade.  Shrugging it off, I picked up the bag that still held my old clothes.  “I guess our ship’s leaving soon,” I said.  Grey nodded.

“I would have woken up in a minute or two,” he assured me, but he’d been so deeply asleep that I wasn’t sure.   The coffee drink, whatever it was, seemed to be having the same effect as regular coffee, and Grey was visibly becoming more alert.  We gathered ourselves and went through the doorway behind the Wizard City gate.  The lady behind the counter gave me a wink and a smile, coupled with a thumbs up.  I waved at her, and then we were through the door and heading out across what looked like a bridge leading to a massive ship.  It looked like it might have been seaworthy, and I wondered if that was how the progression had come about; they might have started with regular sea-faring ships, and then adapted them somehow to fly.

“How do the ships fly?” I asked Grey as we boarded. 

He looked thoughtful.  “Magic, I believe.  I’ve never looked into it before.”

A woman in a tight-fitting uniform was standing on the deck greeting the various wizards who were boarding the ship.  Grey paused before her and bowed.  “Thank you for allowing us on board, Captain,” he said.  She smiled.

“Just saw your father, Greyvaan.  He was in a mighty hurry, but he didn’t say you’d be following after him.”

“He didn’t know,” Grey said, and then we had to move on.  It suddenly occurred to me that it was surprising they used English words, and I mentioned it to Grey.  “The original settlers of Arama were English,” he said.  “Wizards and mages are descended from the Celts, who used natural magicks by drawing on the power of the earth.  They created Arama and the city, and gradually the magic gene was passed around, and more people came.  Now we’re pretty much a totally separate race, but with English being one of the most popular languages on earth, and with most of us spending at least some time over there, it just seemed natural to keep using it here.” 

That…actually made sense.  I wondered if they had schools here, and whether or not it would be possible to get my hands on some text books, or maybe a visit to a library before we left. 

Even by air, the journey to Wizard City would take the better part of a day.  Grey secured us a cabin with two separate beds, and then looked around.  His face was red, and I lifted an eyebrow, wondering what was wrong now. 

“I can – if you want – make a barrier between the beds,” he said after an awkward silence.  I considered this, but ended up shrugging my shoulders.

“If you want,” I said.  “I don’t think you’ll try anything.”

He raised an eyebrow.  I grinned at him.

“And I’m not gonna try anything either.  I’m tired!” And I was.  With a bed in plain sight, I was suddenly exhausted.  I collapsed into it with a satisfied groan.  “This is wonderful,” I said.  “Do whatever you want.”

I didn’t hear whatever he said after that, because I had – unusually – fallen asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

 

I woke up a few hours later feeling refreshed.  I didn’t have any way of keeping track of the time, but I didn’t think I’d been asleep that long.  I sat up, and was surprised when a blanket fell and pooled around my lap.  I’d fallen asleep on top of the covers of my bunk, and I glanced over at Grey.  He was curled up – on his blanketless bunk – on his side, facing me.  His mouth was open slightly and his hair was mussed.  I smiled to myself, and picked up the blanket in silence.  I covered him up with it, and watched as he relaxed a little more, tossing himself onto his back.  I’d always heard the saying that people looked younger in their sleep, but everyone I’d ever seen sleeping just looked like themselves.

Not Grey.  As if he were determined to ruin everything I’d ever known, he actually did look like a lost little boy, dwarfed by the bed.  I found what passed for a restroom – it wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen before, but then nothing here was as it should have been – and splashed some water on my face and my hair, running my fingers through it to comb out the knots.  A streak of panic shot through me as I realised the clip was missing, but when I returned to the main cabin I found it resting peacefully on the little table beside the bed.  I hadn’t thought to take it off before lying down, but Grey must have done it for me.

I didn’t know what to think of him anymore.  He’d been the weird kid at school, and all my friends made fun of him for being different.  Now I knew why he was different, and I was finding out all sorts of other things.  Like the fact that he was a real gentleman deep down, had an annoying streak a mile wide, and snored gently in his sleep.  I still wasn’t sure how this adventure was going to affect our dynamic when we went back – if he was coming back with me – but I knew I couldn’t go on ignoring him the way I had.  I just…

Well, I liked him too much.

Admitting it to myself was hard, and a little bit shocking, but as soon as the thought crossed my mind, I realised how true it was.  I didn’t just like him, I _liked_ him.  I had a crush on Grey!  When had that happened?  We’d spent all of a day together.

A full, adventurous, wonderful day full of emotional ups and downs, and a bonding experience like nothing I’d ever dreamed of. 

Maybe it’d make sense from a psychologist’s point of view.  

I shoved it to the back of my mind – Grey certainly didn’t need to know, especially since he probably didn’t think the same of me, and if there was anything I could say about it, it was the knowledge that nothing hurt quite like confessing your feelings to someone who didn’t return them.  I pulled the top layer of my hair back with the clip, leaving the rest of it down, and quietly left the cabin.  The ship was well underway, and I made my way to the front of it to look out over the railing.  The sky was dark and full of unfamiliar constellations – which puzzled me; if they’d created this place from scratch, where did they get the stars? – and the lights of the ship were dim and didn’t interfere with the view.  It was like looking out of a plane window at night.  They probably didn’t use electricity, but magic worked just as well, and the patches of light beneath me looked like a sparkling spider web strung across the dark landscape.  It was absolutely breathtaking.  The lights far below twinkled and shone, glittering like a reflection of the stars.  I wondered if this was how astronauts felt, caught in nothing between an endless stream of stars. 

The air was warm, and a breeze caused by the ships movement made it comfortable.  I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful place to be.  I suddenly wished I had a camera, and cursed myself for not bringing my cell phone out with me when I went to investigate the Fergusson’s shed.  I wondered how quickly I could learn to paint; Grey said I couldn’t tell anyone about this, or what he was, but he’d never said anything about drawing some of the things I’d seen here.

And the saddest thing of all would be that people would think it had come from my own imagination.  I was pretty imaginative, but not even I could have invented something like this.  I sighed.

“What’s wrong, Toto?”

I jerked, startled because I hadn’t heard Grey coming up beside me.  Good thing I hadn’t been talking to myself, I joked inwardly, and then turned to face him.  I had to stifle a laugh; he had bed hair, and fully one half of his hair was sticking out in giant loops from where he’d lain on it.  “Your hair is a sight,” I told him.  I couldn’t tell in the dim lighting, but I thought he might have blushed.

He did turn away from me and start combing through it with his fingers, trying to make something more presentable out of it, and I did laugh at him then, but not meanly.

“I was just thinking how gorgeous this is,” I said, and gestured over the railing.  The ship was sailing smoothly through the air, and I could see some clouds hanging like fog in the distance.  We’d be passing through them soon, and I wondered what it would be like.  I’d flown in a plane through a cloud once, but it was during the day, and the sun shining through the cloud had set it on fire, making it the brightest, whitest thing I’d ever seen.  I thought maybe heaven looked a little like that sunlit cloud at the time, but now, standing beside Grey on the deck of an airship at night, with lights below us and stars above us, I thought maybe _this_ was a little like heaven. 

I turned around and leaned against the railing, looking at Grey in the solemn lights of the ship.  If this was heaven, then was he an angel sent to lead the way?  He looked like one, with his hair an inky cloud around his head, the light shining behind him and forming a halo.  I could see clearly that his eyes were glowing again, and in the darkness it was beautiful.  Music started playing softly in the background, something instrumental, and I laughed. 

“Are you doing that?”

He shrugged, and I could see the faint outlines of a grin on his face.  “It seemed appropriate.”

Joining me against the railing, Grey looked out into the night.  “It is gorgeous,” he said softly.  “There’s no place on earth quite like this.  I like earth,” he continued, in a different tone of voice.  “But it’s got nothing on Arama.” I saw him looking at me out of the corner of his eye, and he caught me looking at him looking at me, and flashed that lopsided grin that I was beginning to love seeing.  “Or you,” he added, and shifted his weight towards me. 

 _Did he just call me beautiful?_  

I thought he was leaning in to kiss me.  I was leaning towards him – and when did _that_ happen? – and we got so close, and then –

The ship rocked, violent and sudden.  I was thrown from the railing and slid down a little way as the front half tilted up, and then before I could get back to my feet it rolled forward, pitching me into Grey. 

The music stopped as the light in his eyes snapped off, and the ship continued shifting, lolling off to the side.  I glanced up at the bridge, ringed round with windows so the captain, or whoever was filling in for her, could see in all directions – I had a hysterical moment wondering if they were on the lookout for icebergs – and saw the first mate at the wheel, struggling to rein in the ship and keep it from tilting again.  It rocked to the other side and down, and I hit the railing and almost went over the side.  There was one dizzying moment when I was upside down over the bow of the ship, staring down at all those lights I’d been admiring just a few minutes before, and suddenly there were hands on my hips hauling me backwards.  I fell, landing on something soft that groaned quietly, and realised that Grey had pulled me back and broken my fall.  I could have kissed him then on general principles, but all I had time for was a hurried, “thanks!” because the ship was still bucking like a wild horse. 

I could see the captain in the wheelroom now, and even with two of them pulling on the wheel they were still struggling to get it under control.  If anything, it seemed to be reacting more violently the harder they tried.  The ship reared up and I rolled towards the back.  Grey was sliding after me, tangled in the ropes that were lying near the front – I didn’t know enough about ships to know why they were there, but they were seriously hindering his movements.  More people were coming out onto the deck, wondering what was going on.  If the situation were a little less dire, I might have laughed at the tired and grumpy expressions most of them wore. 

“Andie!” 

I glanced up, and saw Grey fling the ropes away from him, but the ship was still leaning up in the front and I couldn’t get enough traction to get to my feet.  I probably would have fallen again anyway, and I could see Grey struggling to keep his footing.  Oddly enough, with everyone clinging to something and trying not to fall, I could feel someone staring at me again.

Another quick look around proved as fruitless here as it had in the Skyport, and then I had more important things to worry about. 

The ship rolled violently, and I landed against the railing.  One of the lamps swinging by a hook slipped off and shattered, spilling oil and – fire.

The ship was on fire, and it was still flinging itself around.  The wind was picking up and fanned the flames, which grew as I watched.  One of the railings caught fire as the next roll brought it within reach of the fingers of flame.  Most of the people I could see had gone back to their cabins, or were holding onto the railing for dear life.  Grey had tied one end of the rope to the railing and the other end to himself, and was carefully walking his way towards me while I –

I was sliding closer to the fire. 

I reached out and grabbed for the railing, but my fingers slipped off it.  I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my blood – of all the things I’d expected to happen, a near death experience wasn’t even on the list! – and everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.  Grey was coming closer, but even as he moved forward, I was sliding back. I could feel the heat of the fire – nobody else had noticed it yet, and Grey was intent on me – and shut my eyes and prayed.

The ship rolled.  I slammed into the railing and could almost feel the bruises forming.  I watched Grey lose his footing and slide into the rail with a wince that was almost audible.  Speaking of audible, the fire was crackling loudly.  I’d never been close to such a huge, open flame before, and I had no idea how _loud_ it could get.  I could see Grey’s mouth moving, but whatever he said was lost under the roar of the flames.  A quick glance behind me showed that I was only about five or six feet away from the rapidly growing inferno.  Water started pouring down on it from above, so someone must have seen it, but it wasn’t doing any good.  The ship rocked forward, and I slid farther from the fire even as Grey was thrown farther from me.  I made another grab for the railing and this time I made it.  Using the poles, I was able to pull myself a little further up, and finally get back to my feet.  Using the rail for balance, I started walking – carefully – towards Grey, who was also pulling himself up the rail towards me.  It was a repeat of earlier in macro, the two of us inching towards each other. 

The ship jerked and rolled. 

I lost my balance – fell against the barrier – felt it give underneath my weight, not a lot, but just enough – the ship tipped further and gravity took hold of me and pulled, and I was falling.

It took a long second for me to realise it – the ship was getting farther away, and I could see Grey’s face, his eyes fiercely purple as he leaned over and reached towards me – _what could he do, it was too late, I was going to die –_ and then I remembered he was a wizard, but something went wrong, and the light went off in his eyes and I started falling faster. 

The last thing I saw was his face, and his hand reaching for me, his expression horrified and shocked and afraid. 

Then I closed my eyes and surrendered to the inevitable.


	6. Go Home (Grey)

I swear I think I felt my heart stop when Andie went over the railing.  The ship was still swinging around and the fire was still growing in spite of the attempts to put it out, but all I could see was Andie, slowly fading into the darkness below us. 

I’d lost her.

I’d brought her here – I could have sent her back – It was my fault. 

_It was my fault._

She was only fifteen years old, just a year younger than me, but because she’d come with me, she was – gone.

I couldn’t think the ‘D’ word.  Not right then. 

I closed my eyes, and I saw her like a movie, maybe ten minutes before the ship had started rolling, leaning over the railing with an expression of wonder and pure joy on her face.  I’d been so happy she was here – so overwhelmed that she was with _me_ , here, experiencing this.  I think I’d even been about to kiss her.

Now I wish I’d moved faster.  I could have kissed her, could at least have that memory to myself.  Or if I’d gotten to her quicker, I could have held onto her.  Kept her from going over.  I just didn’t move fast enough. 

She hadn’t even screamed.  She was _so brave,_ walking right up to Firewind like that, and being so close to the fire, but still trying and not panicking, and –

I had to stop thinking about her.  She was gone, she wasn’t coming back.  I had no idea what I was going to tell her parents, if I could tell them anything.  They might believe me, they might let me show them Arama, but would they blame me?  And her friends.  They already hated me.

If any of them found out that I’d lost her…

I couldn’t go back, that was it.  I _had_ to stop thinking about it!

I let go of the railing, unable to look over the side any more.  I didn’t want to know if I could still see her.  In the wheelroom, I could see the captain and her mate trying to get the ship under control.  The rocking was less violent, so I guessed she was succeeding.  The people at work to put out the fire were also making progress, and the flames were almost out. 

It didn’t matter.  Nothing mattered anymore, because the worst thing that could have happened had already happened. 

Gradually, the ship stopped moving, settled back into the smooth and calm ride it was supposed to be, leaving Andie far behind.  I hadn’t ever been aware that your heart could actually _hurt_ if something wasn’t physically wrong.  I’d learned all about heart attacks and other afflictions, but I wasn’t having a heart attack – but it was in pain nonetheless. 

I felt tears in my eyes, and gasped.  I hadn’t cried since my mother died thirteen years ago.  I’d only known Andie for _a single day._   She couldn’t be that important.  I couldn’t let her be.

But I apparently had no say in it.  My heart continued to hurt.  The tears slipped out and dripped down my face.  I wiped them away, but more replaced them, and I tried to tell myself that I wasn’t crying.  It was because of the smoke, irritating my eyes.  No one else had seen her go overboard – they were busy with the fire, and keeping themselves from going over the side.  I didn’t even want to tell anyone.  There was nothing I could do now.

It was just too late.  It was too late as soon as I lost my grip on her and had to watch her fall.

The captain called a meeting of all passengers to explain what had happened.  I went, and sat in the back, still trying to pretend nothing was wrong.  I didn’t pay any attention to the captain’s words; I tried, but it just sounded like gibberish to me.  Instead, I was thinking of all the times I’d seen Andie at school, or wandering the neighbourhood with her friends. 

She was always bouncing, running, waving her arms, always so full of energy.  She’d made me tired just looking at her, and actually being near her, talking to her, with her constant mood swings and unpredictability, it was exhausting. 

I tried not to think about all the things she would never do now.  And as perverse as it was, I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d ever been kissed before.  First kisses were big deals, especially with girls.  Had she… gone…without ever being kissed?

I couldn’t keep thinking this! 

The captain apologised for the problems with the ship, and released the passengers.  I returned to our cabin, and my chest clenched again at the sight of her rumpled bed.  I sat down on the edge and felt at her pillow, letting my hand follow the contours her head had left in it as she lay there.  I noticed the clip was gone; she’d put it in before leaving the room.  She must have really enjoyed it.

My breath hitched again, thinking that I’d done something good for her at least, and I realised that the bag with her clothes was still there. 

It might have been creepy to anyone else.

To me, it was the only way to remember a girl who had so briefly touched my life, but I had no doubts that she’d changed me forever.  I held her clothes close and lay on the bed that still smelled of her shampoo, and thought about all the things we’d never do.

 

By the next day, I’d mostly recovered myself.  I was still bitterly unhappy, but the worst of the grief was tucked away where it couldn’t bother me.  I still had a mission, and now it was more important than ever that I find my father and tell him what had happened with the ship.  I didn’t think the captain had mentioned it, but I had a feeling that the ship had been magically interfered with.  Going to Wizard City, we were all wizards on board, and I couldn’t imagine any of them would sabotage the ship, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.  The trouble started shortly after Andie and I had gone out onto the deck, and quieted down as soon as she’d fallen.  It reeked of trouble, but I had no way of proving – or even investigating – whatever had happened. 

We pulled into port at Wizard City, and I took up the bag and shuffled towards the debarkation point.  I remembered getting on – how much things changed in two days! – and Andie’s question about the ship, so I made sure to be the last in line to get off, and pulled the captain aside.  “What makes the ship fly?” I asked.  I might never get the chance to tell her, but at least I’d know.  Then, if there really was an afterlife, when I saw her again I could beg her forgiveness and tell her all the things I’d learned about everything I thought she’d want to know. 

“There’re spells woven into the sails,” the captain replied.  “As well as spoken over the wood as its being put together.  Then when she’s ready for a maiden voyage, a group of wizards who’ve made it their duty to create the airships will sing the spells to get her into the air the first time.  That’s what went wrong last night; I could see you not paying attention, all the way in the back.  The spells malfunctioned.  No clue as to why, but we’ll be investigating it so that it doesn’t happen again.  Where’s your friend?”

A pang in my heart.  “Maybe she already got off?” I suggested half-heartedly.  “I haven’t seen her.”

The captain frowned, but didn’t question me further.  I bowed again, because it was just good manners to be polite to the people who served, even if they were high-ranking servants like the prestigious captain of an airship, and made my way down the ramp. 

Wizard City rose up before me, silver in the morning sunlight.  I had to stop and catch my breath, because I realised I had been waiting for Andie to say something about it, or start asking questions, or just…

_Be there._

I drew myself up and continued walking. 

 

It wasn’t far to the house my father maintained in Wizard City.  The servants who kept it for us when we weren’t there greeted me at the gate, and ushered me in.  The house smelled of cleaning products and dust, but there was also something sort of welcoming about it.  It was more home than the house on Snow Street, the house where I’d first seen Andie.  My father had chosen it because of the name; I had never figured out if it was a private joke or just intense egotism, but I couldn’t deny that the neighbourhood was nice, and so were the neighbours.  It had been my own fault that I’d alienated the other kids who lived there, and my association with Andie proved that I could have gotten along with them if I’d made an effort.

Or it might just have been the fact that we were here together.  I frowned suddenly, remembering how she’d gotten past the wards with no apparent difficulty, and even seen the doorway opening in the shed.  She _should not_ have been able to do either of those things, but she had.  I didn’t have an explanation, but there was something a little fishy about the whole situation. 

I thought…maybe…I’d look into it.  It would be easy to find out if any of her family had come from here, or had a wizard in their genealogy somewhere, something that might account for Andie’s unusual abilities.  And the clothes. 

The more I thought about it the more certain I became that she had the potential to use magic, even if she had no formal training.  That was both something of a relief, and a larger worry.  If she had the potential, then something… She might…

“Greyvaan?”

I whirled around.  My father stood there in the doorway, looking grim.  “Father!” 

“What are you doing here?”

He sounded… angry.  “I was looking for you,” I said.  “You vanished.  Andie said she saw something in our shed – she got into our yard, did you know? – and we followed you here.  What are _you_ doing here?”

He sat down and a cloud of dust rose into the air.  “I had business here, Greyvaan.  I don’t like the idea of you running around Arama without me, especially not with the mages on the loose and the threat of a war.”

I sat down too, but didn’t raise any dust.  “So it’s true.  The mages are starting a war.”

“I’ll tell you about it later.  Now.  Who is Andie, and what do you mean she got into our yard?”

I blinked, surprised that he didn’t even know the names of our neighbours, and started telling him about what had happened.

 

By the time I got to the end of it, I was thoroughly embarrassed.  I could tell my father was reading more into what I was telling him than what I was actually saying, and I didn’t want to think about what kind of conclusions he might be coming to. 

“I will investigate her,” he said after a long silence.  “I am in no trouble, but you might be, especially once the Byrnes discover their daughter is missing.  I want you to return to the house on Snow Street.”  He held up a hand to cut me off as I was about to argue with him.  “You will return to Snow Street, Greyvaan.  It is not safe for you here, and I cannot perform my duties if I am worried about you being in danger.  I will investigate your friend.”

“Very well,” I said, quelled.  “I’ll go back.”  But it wouldn’t be the same.  I didn’t feel comfortable going back to the empty house, and have to look out my window and see _her_ house, waiting for her to return to it.  “Now?”

“The sooner I know you are safe, the quicker I will be able to do what I need to do,” my father said.  I sighed, but didn’t try to argue.  My father was more powerful than I, and if I had to be forcefully returned it would not be pleasant for me.  Better to just go, and wait for him to return. 

Fortunately, I didn’t need to go all the way back to the gate in Arama City.  We had installed our own gate back to earth in the house, although it was only one way, probably because neither of us spent much time in the house itself. 

So it was with a heavy heart that I said farewell to my father, and found the gate in the back of the house.  My thoughts flashed back to Andie and I hesitated, but then stepped through.


	7. After Falling (Andie)

I didn’t know where I was.  The last thing I remembered was falling – and then nothing.

 _I shouldn’t be alive,_ I thought.  I’d fallen off an _airship._   I opened my eyes and saw trees above me.  I tried to sit up, but every part of my body protested.  I felt like I’d been beaten with a baseball bat. 

“Are ye alright then, girl?  Ye’re awake?” 

I turned my head with an effort, and saw an old man standing over me.  Half of me had a moment of panic –strange guy in a strange place, me unable to even try to defend myself – and the other half relaxed, like everything would be okay.  It was a really strange feeling to be so conflicted.  “I’m awake,” I said.  “I don’t know about alright.  Where am I?  What happened?”

He shuffled around a little, and I noticed he was wearing robes as he sat himself down on one of the low-hanging tree branches.  “I dinno.   Ye fell out of the sky sometime last night, as best I can tell.  Ye landed in yon tree, and I got ye down.  I was afraid ye was dead, but ye was still breathing.  So I left ye here and got some food, if ye’re hungry.”  He gestured to a large pot that was hung over a crackling fire.  My stomach grumbled, loudly proclaiming its emptiness.  I couldn’t feel embarrassed about it, though; I was much too happy to be alive. 

“What’s your name?”

“Benjin Boite.  And yers?”

I paused for a moment.  Which name should I give to him?  “Andreanna Burntree,” I said, deciding on the false one.  “I’m not from around here, originally.  I was on an airship, but something went wrong.”

“Oh, I know ye’re not from here.  Ye’ve the stink of the human world about ye.  It’s fading rightly, though.  It’d go faster if ye used some of the magic up.”

I stared at him, and eased myself into a sitting position.  “What magic?”

“The magic inside ye,” he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.  I had what could only be described as a movie montage flashback. 

_“You shouldn’t have been able to see anything.  How did you get in here, anyway?”_

_“Uh, hello. That flimsy little fence wouldn’t stop a Chihuahua, and I’ve been hopping over it to get to Oliver’s house since I was like, four.”_

_“Have your eyes always been purple?”_

_“Yes. Have yours?”_

_“What?”_

_“Yet. Your racism is silly and unfounded.”_

_“Ever! Your clothes tell me you’re not capable of it.”_

“Oh my god, I can do magic.”

The old man paused, as if startled by this proclamation.  _I_ was certainly startled by it, at any rate.  “Of course ye can.  Ye’d be a wizard, then?”  He gestured at my rumpled and dirty tunic. 

“Of course I can’t.  I’m from earth.  I’ve never even been to Arama before now.  I was supposed to be helping Grey find his dad.  That’s the only reason I’m here.” But even as the words slipped out of my mouth, I was also remembering Grey’s continual state of shock.  That I got into his yard even with his supposed wards and charms, that I’d seen anything in the shed, that I’d gotten through the door.  It was like he’d known – if he’d known all along that I was capable of doing magic, I’d kill him – before I did.  Or at any rate, it was possible he’d put the pieces together a little faster than I had.

Benjin was giving me a toothy grin.  “Bit of a shock when most people find out, I guess.  Ye’ll be alright.  I was wondering why you hadn’t dissipated it yet, but if ye just found out, well, that makes sense.  I’d hazard a guess to say that the cloud of magic ye’ve been accumulating since ye got here is what saved yer life.  Ye fell, but the magic didn’t let ye hit too hard.  It’s a bit like a wild animal, ye see.  Has a mind of its own if ye don’t keep a tight rein on it.  Or at least,” he looked amused.  “That’s what I’ve heard.  I wouldn’t know, meself.”

It was more important than ever that I find Grey.  I was sure he was freaking out, probably thought I was dead – which, given the circumstances, was a perfectly reasonable conclusion to come to – but I had to tell him that I was possibly just like him.  I had to find out what to do about it, and ask him about what this was going to do to my life.

I couldn’t go to school with magic, could I?  But he did it.  What about college?  Would it interfere with that?  There was no way of knowing. 

“I don’t do magic meself,” Benjin was saying.  “But I’ve long years behind me as a mage’s instructor.  They’re at one another’s throats nowadays but it wasn’t always like that.  It’s what’s inside that makes the difference, and the choices ye make.  I couldn’t teach ye the spells, but I might could help ye keep it under control so ye’re not broadcasting like a telly-vision.” 

“I’d appreciate that,” I said.

 

And that’s how I came to be apprenticed to Benjin Boite, the Instructor.  It was a few days of intensive meditation followed by some of the strangest things I’d ever done – climbing trees and hanging from branches upside down by my knees, and standing under a waterfall and letting the water pour down over me.  None of it made any sense, but at the end of it, I was feeling better.  The exercise had worked out the last of my bruises from hitting the trees, and I felt like I could _feel_ my muscles getting stronger.  Benjin told me that the illusion of strength was coming as the magic surrounding me was pouring back into my body, where it would stay as long as I practiced meditating on it every day. 

We were in the middle of the forest somewhere.  Benjin told me that he had no way of leaving trees – he was bound there by a geis older than my grandparents, he said – but he was able to take me to the edge of the forest closest to Arama, which was the only place I knew.  I’d never seen Wizard City, and of course, I hadn’t been anywhere else.  I’d only been in Aramalan a few weeks at this point, but I missed Grey more than I could bear to think about, even to myself. 

 _Absence makes the heart grow fonder,_ I thought, but I also wondered how I was going to find him.  He could have been anywhere.  I had nothing but an uphill battle ahead of me, and no way of knowing how things were going to turn out.

I said goodbye to Benjin at the forest’s edge, and promised I’d come back to visit him before I went home. 

As soon as the words left my mouth, I realised that I hadn’t been home in _weeks._   Grey probably thought I had died after falling from the ship, but what would my _parents_ think?  They had no explanation about where I’d gone.  They had no way of knowing I was alive and well and I had no way of getting in touch with them, because I had no idea how to get out of here.

So I walked.  It wasn’t that far to the outskirts of Arama, but it was far enough from the market – the only part of it I was familiar with – that I had to stop someone on the street and get directions from them.  They called me Lady Wizard and bowed their heads as I passed. 

Once I reached the market – enclosed by the woods as I’d been, I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten how _large_ the market was – I found myself hopelessly lost all over again.  After almost an hour of wandering hopelessly, I found a shop I recognized.  It was the one Grey had gone into to buy my clothes – which reeked, I realised.  I’d washed them as best as I could, but I’d never felt really comfortable taking off my clothes and washing them or myself with Benjin always so close by. 

It was a wonder the people could still find it in themselves to be polite.  I was sure I smelled like the forest, and my hair was a sight. 

I went in.  I didn’t know the proprietress, but she apparently knew me.  

“You’re Andrea Byrne!”

I almost corrected her with my pseudonym, and then realised that Andreanna was _not_ my name.  I wondered if it was a side effect of being with someone who called me nothing but Andreanna or Lady Burntree, or the weeks in the forest, or some magic part of Aramalan that made people forget who they were.

I wondered how many cases of missing people were actually wizards or mages or others who’d just come to Arama and forgotten where they came from.  Or who was waiting for them.  _Like my parents!_

“Yes,” I said.  “Um.  I’m looking for Greyvaan Snow.  Do you know where I can find him?”

She came around the counter and swept me up into a hug.  I blinked, hugging her back awkwardly.  “Andrea Byrne!  You’re alive!  As I live and breathe girl, you’re a sight for sore eyes!”

“Ma’am?”

She released me, and I was surprised to see tears in her eyes.  “He went back, darling.  Sent a message here through the mirror saying you were dead and his father had sent him back.”

I felt her words like a punch to the gut.  He’d left me here? 

 _He thought I was dead.  Did I expect him to wait?  I_ expected _him to go back.  At least he found his father._

“I don’t know how to get back,” I said, which was the only thing I could think of _to_ say.  The woman clucked. 

“Not to worry, dear heart, I can call Greyvaan and find out if he’d be willing to come back through to get you.  Shades and shadows, I thought you were a ghost when you first walked in here.  Oh!”  Her hand flew up over her mouth.

I looked behind me, wondering if another ‘dead’ person had walked in behind me, but didn’t see anyone.  The woman reached out and touched my hair.

“You’ve still got the clip,” she said, and a fond smile spread across her face.  “My name’s Mintra.  I’m an old, old friend of the Snows.  I’ll try not to pry into what you’ve been up to since Grey lost you, and don’t take this the wrong way, but –”

I cut her off.  “I’m in dire need of a bath and a fresh change of clothes,” I said, picking at my tunic.  It was stained and dirty, but it was the only thing I had.  Mintra smiled.

“Yes.  Let me just lock up the shop and you can come up and eat and bathe, and then I’ll see about getting in touch with Grey.  It may take a few days; from what I understand he hasn’t been in touch with anyone.  Antrei’s been in here a few times wondering if I’ve heard from Greyvaan, but he can’t get back yet himself to check.”  She bustled past me and locked up the door, flipping a sign in the window.  I still couldn’t read the script it was in, but it was looking more familiar, kind of like a word I’d seen but couldn’t pronounce.  I wondered if it was from spending so much time here. 

I followed Mintra up the stairs into her flat above the shop.   She showed me the bathroom – it was very modern, and didn’t look at all as provincial as the rest of the city.  “I’ve family in Tacoma, Washington,” she confided in me.  “They don’t know where I live, but I got used to a few things when I visited.”  She winked and said, “I’ll bring you some clothes and whatnot, you just relax and settle yourself.”  She left a towel on the sink and shut the door behind her.  I stripped out of the tunic and trousers, wondering if they had anything like underwear here, too – I _had_ managed to wash those in the stream and leave it to dry unobtrusively while I practiced meditating, but it didn’t change the fact that I’d been wearing the same clothes for several weeks.  This pair would be going into the next fire if they did. 

The hot water felt like a blessing, and I sank into the tub gratefully.  I heard the door open and close again, and peeked into the main section of the bathroom without leaving the water.  The clothes I had been wearing were gone – even the shoes – and there was what looked from the tub like an entirely new outfit.  I wondered again how I’d be able to pay off the debts I was accumulating here, and then decided it didn’t really matter as I ducked my head under the water.

There wasn’t anything wrong with the stream I’d been bathing in while I was with Benjin, but there was just something _wonderful_ about a tub full of hot water, real soap, and _shampoo._   I didn’t realise quite how dirty I’d been – I had made the effort to wash, really! – but as I soaped and scrubbed myself really clean, the water got murky with the filth.  It was especially bad when I washed my hair, and I made a face into the water. 

But I hadn’t felt this light in what felt like forever.  I finally drained the water when it was starting to get too cool to be comfortable and dried and dressed myself.

I felt horribly embarrassed when I realised that Mintra had indeed left an entirely new outfit – right down to the underwear - which I was insanely grateful for, but hated the necessity of needing.  But when I was dressed and clean – she’d even left some slipper-like shoes that had hard soles – I couldn’t believe how good I felt.  I hadn’t even realised it had been an issue.

I pulled my wet hair back into the clip and left the bathroom.  The hallway was dark, with light streaming from a room up ahead so I investigated it and found Mintra in front of a massive mirror. 

“Well, you see, there’s something you should see.  It’s quite important,” she was saying.

“Mintra, I have homework.  I really shouldn’t be wasting time –”

That was Grey’s voice!  I let out a noise before I could stop it, and threw myself toward the mirror.  “Grey!”

He blinked, surprised.  Then his eyebrows went down and a look of pure fury crossed his face.  “Mintra, this is _not funny –”_ he started, but I cut him off.

“Shut up, Dorothy.” 

He did.  The furious expression turned whiter and whiter, until I was afraid he was going to pass out.  “Andie?”   His voice was a whisper, as if he couldn’t quite believe it was me.  For that matter, I couldn’t either.  But this wasn’t a good time for emotional reunions, so I tried to lighten the mood.

“Grey?” I teased.  “You need to come back.  I don’t know how to get home.”

“Andie.  Andie!”  His face darkened again, and I could see him grab for the mirror.  It was exceedingly weird, because his hands suddenly disappeared, and the whole picture shook.  I guessed he was shaking it, and grinned.  “Andrea, _you –”_

Suddenly the whole house was shaking.  I turned to look at Mintra, and saw that she was looking around fearfully.  The mirror fell off the table and crashed to the floor, shattering into splinters.  Apparently whatever spell had been used to power the video call wasn’t enough to stand up to the mirror being broken, because Grey’s image was gone. 

“Mintra?  What’s going on?”

She didn’t answer me, instead throwing open the nearest window.  In the distance, parts of the city were on fire.  People wearing the white clothes I remembered were running through the streets.  “The mages have made their move,” she whispered.  I felt my eyes widen.  

We’d just called Grey back, but the city was under attack.  He had no idea what he was about to walk into.

And for that matter, how were we going to survive long enough to warn him about it?

 

On the street, it was chaos.  People were running in all directions, stumbling over one another, trying to get to their shops or homes, trying to get away from the market – it was a mess.  Two or three mages stood in the middle of the street, casting what looked at fireballs into the houses.  I paused, staring.  They were casting at the houses.

People were running every which way, but the mages were completely ignoring them entirely.  That struck me as incredibly weird, but then Mintra had grabbed my arm and was hauling me down an alleyway. 

“My house’ll stand up to anything they can do,” she said, “but we should get out of the forum for now.  Grey’ll be coming down at the gondola house, we should head there first.  If I know him, he’ll be coming for you just as soon as he can get through the doorway, though it may take him a while to get through the labyrinth.  I don’t think he’d ever come here by himself before the two of you showed up together – he’s always come with his father before.”

I remembered that, too.  I could see him feeling at the wall, looking for something, and finally finding the place where his father had opened the doorway into the Gateroom with the jewels.  This time I didn’t think Antrei Snow had been by recently. 

I should have been out of breath by the time we reached the top of the hill, but I wasn’t even breathing hard despite the fact that we’d run almost the whole way.  Mintra was, and it took her a few moments to recover before she went to the gondola attendant and asked if Grey had come down yet.

I stopped paying attention to them then, because I could see almost the entire city.  Most of the city was on fire, and I could see some of the buildings starting to collapse.  I’d never been totally up to date on what was going on here, but it seemed like I’d lost a lot while I was in the forest.

“ _Andrea!”_

I started to turn around but I was nearly knocked over before I got more than halfway.  I could see Grey’s hair out of the corner of my eye, but he was holding me so tightly that I could barely breathe, much less look at him. 

“Grey,” I said, but he didn’t seem to hear me – or just ignored me outright. 

He took me by the arms and held me out, looking at me.  I looked back at him – he looked awful.  “Haven’t you eaten?” I asked.  “Or slept?  What were you _doing_?”

Anything else I might have said was cut off when he pulled me in close and kissed me.

It wasn’t a movie kiss – our mouths were closed and my eyes were wide open – but the surprise and feeling behind it stunned me. 

He held me back out and stared some more.  “I thought you were dead,” he said finally.  I tried to catch my breath and settle my racing heart. 

“You _look_ dead,” I finally managed, finishing my earlier sentence.  Grey just shook his head silently.  There were massive purple bags under his eyes, and creases at the corners of his mouth, and his hair was a mess – even though I’d never seen him at school talking to anyone, he was always dressed nicely with neat hair.  It looked like he’d rushed out in pajamas to get here when Mintra showed me the mirror.  And he was staring at me like I was the answer to all his prayers. 

I’d at least managed to wash my hair, but I wasn’t wearing makeup, I hadn’t blow-dried my hair – it tended to frizz if I didn’t put something like mousse in it, too – and I was wearing a kind of shapeless tunic and pants.  I didn’t understand why he was staring like that or why he’d kissed me – _kissed me_!

I threw my arms around him.  “I didn’t mean to scare you, you know,” I whispered.  “I don’t know how I survived.  I’ve got some theories, though, and,” I remembered now, “I’ve got a bone to pick with you when we get a chance.”

“Anything you want,” he said.  I glanced at him sharply.  He just looked…happy.  Tired.  Kinda zombie-ish.  But happy.  “I’m so glad you’re alive.  I really thought… I thought you were dead,” he said softly.  I hugged him tighter. 

“Okay.  Later.  Did you bring a change of clothes with you?  Or are we going home…now?”  As the words were leaving my mouth, I realised the last thing I wanted right now was to go home.  I was worried about my parents.  I didn’t know what they would think of me suddenly showing back up looking like this month’s Gothic Girls magazine cover model, and I wanted to know more about the mages and what they were doing and how to stop them, and …

And I wanted to know more about this power.  I wanted to learn how to use it, if I could.  And that would probably mean staying here for a while longer.  Which I wanted.  I’d go home at some point, and let my parents know I was alive, but I had to stay here a little longer.  The feeling that I had to do something important, and had to do it here, was almost overpoweringly strong.

“We can go back if you’d like,” Grey said.  “I found my father.  I don’t know where he’s at or what he’s doing now.  But your parents are frantic.  They think you’ve been kidnapped, they’ve been on the news, there are flyers everywhere with your picture –”

“I don’t want to go home,” I said.  “Not yet anyway.  That’s one of the things I need to talk to you about.”

A fireball rushed past our heads and just barely missed the gondola house.  The attendant ran out, and away from us, and in unison, the two of us turned and looked down the hill at the mage walking towards us. 

“A happy little reunion.” 

The voice was familiar, but the expression on the face was not.  It took me a moment to realise that the mage walking towards us was Raphaelim Firewind, the one who’d so frustrated Grey when we first came here.  I felt mature as I looked at him and didn’t feel the slightest inclination to be anywhere near him.  It might have been the ugly look on his face, or it might have been the fact that Grey had kissed me, or it might even be the power in me that Benjin had been so adamant about rejecting something that it saw as its enemy – whatever it was, I wanted to be far away from him.  Grey stepped in front of me, but he was trembling and clearly exhausted.  There might not have been much I could do, but I didn’t feel like standing there like a damsel in distress, and I stepped in front of him. 

“Lim.  What are you doing?”

“Andreanna Burntree, the indestructible.  You must have a guardian angel looking out for you, you know.” Firewind ignored me, instead looking past me to Grey.  “We tried several times to get rid of her, but your damn hair clip deflected the worst of it, and then we find out she’s in the bloody woods after being dropped off an _airship_ – not even your pretty silver could have had anything to do with _that._ Which means you’re more than meets the eye, Andrea.”  He turned and looked at me again.  I felt a cold shiver run down my spine.  This wasn’t the country gentleman escorting a lady on a walk – this was a dangerous mage.  Behind me, Grey growled again. 

“You were behind the airship malfunction,” he snarled.  He looked absolutely nonthreatening wearing a white tee shirt that looked oddly flat in the mid-morning sunlight, and a pair of navy blue pajama pants with Snoopy printed all over them.  Looking at him over my shoulder, I just realised he didn’t even have any shoes on – he was just wearing socks over his feet.  He really must have just rushed out the door as soon as the mirror had broken and disconnected. 

Firewind inclined his head.  “I was.  You never noticed?  Andrea noticed me, even if she couldn’t see past the glamours.”

I remembered the feeling of being watched, and realised that he must have been following us pretty much the whole time.  I suddenly wished I could do magic – cast specific spells.  Grey was practically vibrating beside me, he was so visibly angry, and also so visibly unable to do anything.  I could almost hear him gritting his teeth.  And I’d never wanted anything so much in my life as I wanted to punch his stupid smug face in. 

Firewind raised his hands, and I swear I could almost feel the energy gathering at his fingertips.  I didn’t need Grey’s shouted warning to get out of the way to tell me Lim was about to do something – possibly shoot off another fireball at us – but I suddenly got angry.

Fiercely angry. 

And as I saw the flickers of light coalesce into a visible ring of fire, I acted on the most bizarre instinct I’d ever had, and threw my own hands up.  The fireball ricocheted off something invisible about three feet in front of us and looped back around, striking Firewind.  It didn’t do much damage – I doubt it did more than blacken his clothes a bit and singe his hair – but I could tell he hadn’t been expecting _that._  

None of us had.  I heard Grey gasp beside me, and when I looked at him, he was staring at me as if I’d grown a second head. 

“You figured it out,” he breathed.  I was still angry, and I felt a breeze come up out of nowhere and ruffle my hair.  Funny that it didn’t seem to be touching anyone else. 

“You knew.”

“Lovers spat?”  Firewind had recovered enough to taunt us.  “Trouble in paradise?”

“Shut _up_ ,” Grey said, and threw his hands up.  I’d never seen him do anything more complicated than opening the magic doors between the worlds, and once, when he was showing off, he’d made some flowers and little birds.  What he did now was _nothing_ in comparison to those times, as a huge deluge of water rushed out of nowhere and flew down the slope towards Firewind.  I stepped back out of the way, and Mintra made her way to my side, standing silently as the two boys waged a magic duel. 

Firewind countered with a blaze that burned half the water away to steam, but there was still enough of it left – with enough force – to thoroughly douse him and even push him back down the hill a few steps.  They both took a moment – to catch their breath, I guessed, because they regrouped at exactly the same moment and threw another round at one another.  Grey looked horribly pathetic in his pajamas and socks, facing down a man who was all but armoured.  And he was visibly starting to weaken.  His face was turning grey, and I could see sweat beading on his forehead.  Firewind didn’t seem at all bothered by the effort he was expending. 

I felt the wind around me pick up again.  Grey took a deep breath and hurled another wave, which Firewind burned off easily, but he wasn’t expecting _me._   I don’t know what I did, but a massive gust of wind followed the water, and the craziest part of it was that it came from _me._   I felt my energy levels drop as the wind burst into life just in front of Grey, and I was suddenly exhausted. 

The wind picked up the debris that lay scattered around on the street and blew into Firewind with such a fury that he was actually knocked off his feet and rolled down the hill a little way.

I sagged, and would have fallen if Grey hadn’t been by my side supporting me.  He looked surprised.  “How did you do that?” he hissed at me, and I shrugged.  I might have said something else, but Lim had regained his feet and was scowling at us.

“It’s over for today, and ends in a draw.  Do not think that I am easily defeated, Greyvaan and Andreanna!  We will continue this later.”  He took a step back and vanished into a swirl of colours.  I felt my face heating up at the way he’d said our names together.  I liked the sound of it, though. 

“How did you do that?” Grey asked again.  In the distance, I could see that the fires were slowly coming under control.  More than half the city was on fire or reduced to rubble, but it looked to me like the mages had all made their escape at the same time.  I felt again like I was in a video game – and if I had been, this would have been the part where the bad guys pulled back to regroup, but they’d be back again, or they’d strike somewhere else – and do more damage. 

I had a feeling that this was a statement more than anything. 

“I don’t know,” I finally answered, dragging my eyes up to look at Grey.  His eyes were neon purple.  I’d forgotten how much I liked it when they did that.  “I just… did.”

“You shouldn’t have been able to do that,” Grey said, mostly to himself.  I laughed.

“You haven’t figured out that ‘can’t’ doesn’t apply to me yet?  You’re always saying that.  How about you tell me something that I should be able to do?”

A wave of exhaustion swept over me suddenly and my knees buckled.  Okay, so maybe I’d been bragging just a bit.  ‘Can’t’ apparently applied very well when it came to doing something like that, and I felt horribly embarrassed – I’d never fainted in my life before coming here – but it stopped mattering a few seconds later when Grey’s worried face went dark. 

I woke up again later – I didn’t know how long I’d been out – and wondered where I was.  Mintra bustled in with something in her arms and set it down on the bedside table.  She paused when she saw me looking at her.

“Don’t do that again,” she said severely.  “You worried me half out of my mind, and poor Greyvaan was nearly hysterical!”

My head was pounding, but I shook it gently anyway.  “I don’t plan to.  I didn’t _mean_ to,” I said.  “But I was just looking at Lim’s face and I just wanted to… _ooh._ ”  I ground one fist into the other palm.  “Right in his nose.” 

Mintra grinned.  “Well, I’ll let him know you’re up.  We’re back at my house, and waiting for the official report about what happened.  Obviously the mages have started the war they’ve been threatening, but there’s no way of knowing how much damage they did before they left.  I’m just glad my shop’s still standing, for my part.” She paused in the doorway.  “This is your room for as long as you’ll be staying here.  Grey’s in the next one over, since he doesn’t want to go anywhere near Wizard City right now, and while you’re here, you’ll be needing a place to sleep.  There are some extra clothes for you – if you want to try them on as soon as you’re feeling better, I’ll see about altering them a bit.” She gestured at the shapeless tunic.  “Since you look like a fashionable young girl, and I saw the way Grey was looking at you.”  She laughed heartily.  “And I also remember being your age, with boys like Greyvaan looking at me, and I know the last thing I’d want is to be wearing something that made me look like I was wearing a sack.”

I laughed with her.  “I’d appreciate it.  How long was I out?” 

“Just a few hours.”  We were interrupted by a knocking at the door.  Mintra grinned.  “That’ll be the Wizard’s Council, coming to reassure everyone that it’ll all be okay.  That might have worked if everyone wasn’t already convinced it was just a matter of time.”  She vanished from the door, pulling it closed behind her. 

I climbed to my feet, and wished I hadn’t.  Whatever I’d done – used the magic inside me, I guess – had really done a number on me.  There was a mirror in my room, and I looked at myself in it.  There were purple streaks under my eyes to rival the ones on Grey’s face, and my skin was an unhealthy shade of white.  I took a deep breath and straightened the tunic.  She was right, I thought.  It really did make me look like I was wearing a sack.

I left my room, and followed the sound of voices to the stairs.  As Mintra had guessed, there were two official looking wizards at the door. 

“We believe this is an isolated attack, ma’am, although we are very aware that the rumours of mages going on a rampage have been floating around for several months now.  No, we do not believe that this has anything to do with the war they’re supposedly starting.   The damage has been mostly superficial; easily repaired buildings and streets, and no casualties.  Less than ten injuries total, and those were caused when buildings fell and trapped people inside.  Do you have any questions?”

Mintra said no, she didn’t, and the two men thanked her gravely and left.  I looked at her curiously after she’d closed the door.

“Exactly what I was expecting,” she said, and went into another room, out of sight.  Grey sat down beside me on the stairs, wearing some proper clothes and boots now.  I suddenly realised I’d seen him in his _pajamas_ and giggled.  

“Snoopy?” I asked, and had the distinct pleasure of watching his face turn scarlet. 

“I’d forgotten I was wearing them,” he muttered.  I leaned against his shoulder, suddenly realising how _big_ he was.  He was several inches taller than I was, and I’d always known that, but I didn’t think I’d ever realised how broad his shoulders were as well.  It occurred to me that he must have carried me –wearing his Snoopy pajamas – all the way from the gondola house back to Mintra’s place.  

“They’re cute,” I said, teasingly.  His face became even redder.  “No,” I said.  “I liked them.  You should wear them always.”

“I’ll never wear them again if you don’t stop,” he threatened, and I laughed. 

It occurred to me that I hadn’t laughed since I’d fallen off the airship.

My falling off hadn’t been an accident.  Firewind had tried to _kill_ me.   I felt myself sober up pretty quickly.   Grey looked alarmed.

“What’s wrong, Toto?” 

I felt a flush of warmth at the nickname.  “I was just thinking about L-er… Firewind.  He tried to kill me.”

“I’d like to return the favour,” Grey muttered. 

“I wonder why?”

“Isn’t the fact that I hate him enough for you?”

“Killing someone because you hate them isn’t a good way to live your life,” I told him.  “But not that.  I wonder why he did it.”

“Maybe because _he_ hates _me_ ,” Grey said.  “He’s always broken or destroyed or taken anything that I had when we were kids. Why should he stop just because you’re a person and not a toy?”

A lot of things clicked into place then, and I gasped.  “I knew there was more to it than just the fact that you’re on opposite sides.  Why didn’t you tell me you were childhood rivals?  Do you know how much more exciting that is? And also how easy it was to tell that you were lying about something?  You let me wander around the Skyport full of wizards and mages who _didn’t_ want to kill each other on sight, you know.  That was a pretty good comparison.”

At least he had the good grace to look embarrassed by it.  “I’m sorry.  My father doesn’t approve of our …fighting.  He refuses to even call it a rivalry, even though we’ve been actively trying to outdo one another since he took his mage mark.”

I added ‘mage mark’ to the list of things Grey was going to have to explain to me at some point.  I was going to have to write them all down soon or I was going to start forgetting some of them. 

“I’ve been worried about my father,” Grey said suddenly.  “I haven’t seen or heard from him in weeks.  I saw him the night you – fell.  But he sent me back, and then pretty much vanished.”

I had a sudden bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I didn’t know what could have caused it.  I wondered what was going through Grey’s mind – I had the impression that his dad was either pretty protective of him, or just didn’t trust him that much, especially because Mintra had told me straight up that Antrei didn’t let him go through the doors on his own.  That meant that every time he’d come here, his father had been with him.  And then he’d come on his own – well, with me, but that didn’t really count because I wasn’t from here and didn’t belong – hadn’t belonged, because now I wasn’t sure _where_ I belonged – and his dad had immediately sent him back with no questions asked, just ‘get out of here.’

I didn’t know if it was just me, but there was something pretty fishy about the whole thing. 


	8. Untitled Chapter (Grey)

I didn’t know what my father was involved in – possibly the war effort, trying to get the mages under control before they could launch another attack like today – but it was beginning to make me nervous, especially when he’d been so quiet.  He’d never been so secretive before, and I wondered what was causing it now. 

But I shoved it all to the back of my mind. I could deal with it later; there were more important things to be worrying about.  Like Andie’s sudden return to life. 

“I want you to tell me exactly what happened after you fell off the ship,” I told her.  I couldn’t keep my eyes off her.  I’d heard the expression before, mostly in books, but I’d never realised that it could be a literal expression, but I just _couldn’t_ look away.  It wasn’t like she meant much to me – she was just a girl.

But she was my friend, too.

And I’d thought she was _dead._   I thought she was dead _because of me._   Those were some pretty tough things to come to terms with, and I’d spent a miserable, sleepless month until Mintra called through the mirrors. 

And then… I couldn’t believe she could be alive.  But she’d called me Dorothy.  And now she was here, and she apparently knew about her powers because she’d _used_ them, in defense of me – and as worried as I’d been when she collapsed in my arms, I remembered when I’d been younger and just learning to use mine as well, how tired they’d made me, because until you learned how to draw on the strength of the world around you, all the power you were using was coming from inside you.  And she was completely untrained. 

I almost hated to admit it, but I was impressed. 

“I don’t know what happened immediately after I fell,” Andie was saying.  “But when I woke up, there was an old man standing over me.  He said his name was Benjin Boite –”

I scoffed before I could help myself, and then paused before I could complete the thought that was forming.  One, Benjin Boite was a legend.  Two, she _couldn’t possibly have known that name._

“What?”

“I’ll explain in a minute.  Just carry on for now,” I said, and settled my gaze on her face.  It was, as always, completely open and honest.

“Anyway.  Benjin Boite.  He explained to me that he was pretty sure I had magic that had cushioned my fall, and that’s why I wasn’t dead.  Then he fed me and helped me learn to focus it.  He said he couldn’t teach me anything specific, but just to get it under control, and I feel spent most of the time in a bad remake of a martial arts movie.  Then I wanted to go find you, so he brought me back to Arama.  It wasn’t really all that exciting.

“What about you?  What have you been doing?”

I closed my eyes.  “I thought you were dead, obviously.  You should have been.  And I thought it was my fault, because I hadn’t moved fast enough in getting to you.  I found my father at Wizard City – or he found me, either way – and he sent me back.  I went to school, and came home and didn’t sleep much.  I felt so guilty.  Andrea… Can you .. forgive me?”

The words popped out before I realised I was going to say them, but as soon as they were between us, I realised that that’s what was wrong.  I felt like I had failed her.  She had been alright, obviously, but it didn’t change the fact that when it came down to me – I had failed.

“Of course,” she said easily, like it was the most natural thing in the world.  I wanted to explain how important it was to me, but I couldn’t get the words out.  Nevertheless, hearing her say it lightened my heart.  She grinned at me.  “You didn’t do anything wrong.  From where I’m sitting, you were the hero, you know.” 

I disagreed, but seeing her smiling face again was enough to make it not matter.  I didn’t want to argue with her right now.  “I’m just so glad you’re alive.” 

“Me too,” she said lightly.  “Cheer up.  There’s nothing you could have done, especially if Firewind was behind it.”

I scowled.  “You think I’m not strong enough to take him on?” I asked, mostly rhetorically.  I didn’t really want to know what she thought of it, but the words were out, and if I had learned anything about her in the time we’d spent together, it was that she didn’t hesitate to say what was on her mind.

“I actually don’t know how strong you are,” she said after a thoughtful pause.  “I’ve never really seen you do anything except for today, and the little birds you made when you told me your secret.”   She blew a strand of hair out of her face.  “I just meant that with him actively working for his goal–” she apparently didn’t like thinking about the details of that goal, which – considering they were to kill her, I didn’t blame her – I understood completely.  I didn’t like thinking about it, either.  “It wasn’t very likely that you’d have been able to do something about it.  Not unless you knew he was there and what he was doing, which neither of us did until he talked about it.” She laughed suddenly, a quiet sound that brought warmth with it into the room.  “You always see villains in video games and movies talking about their goals and plans in detail, but it never makes any sense.  Unless they’re standing over the bodies of their enemies, why do they reveal the plans just in time for the good guys to make an escape and then come back and defeat them?”

I put one hand over hers.  “This isn’t a video game, Andie.  It’s real.”

I thought she was going to pull away, but instead she leaned her head against my shoulder again.  “I know that.  I figured that out real quick when I fell off the ship.  _That_ was an experience I’ll never want to repeat.  I don’t even like the idea of bungee-jumping, and you’re attached to a cable when you do that.”

“What is bungee jumping?”

She laughed again.  I listened to it and felt like a man in the desert with his first real taste of water.  She had a wonderful laugh, full and throaty, and I had to remind myself that she was only fifteen.  I would be seventeen in two months, and it suddenly occurred to me to ask about her birthday.  “It’s when you throw yourself off of a platform you’re attached to by a springy cord.  It bounces you around a little, but it’s apparently really safe.  I’ve never had any desire to throw myself off anything before, and even if I had, the fall off the ship would have killed it.  People who base jump or skydive must be insane.”

I nodded in agreement.  “And what’s your birthday, by the way?”

She looked surprised.  “July fifteenth,” she said.  I counted up the days, and realised that her birthday was in less than a week.  Her surprised look got even bigger when I told her that.  “I didn’t even realise it,” she said.  “I hope my parents don’t worry too much.”

They were going to worry whether or not she wanted them to, but I didn’t feel like ruining the mood by telling her that.  She snickered, unaware of my thoughts and apparently jumping ahead in her own. 

“What’s so funny?”

She laughed harder.  “Snoopy,” she said.  I groaned.

“You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”

“Nope.” 

 

I’d always known Mintra made the clothes she sold, but I’d never had much interest in the process before now.  She’d given Andie several outfits – something I could see was slightly embarrassing to her, but considering the fact that she had no other options, Andie was choosing to accept the charity – and they didn’t quite fit right.  I was capable of altering my own clothes, and when I didn’t feel like it or couldn’t figure out how, my father was adept at doing it, but this was the first time I’d ever seen anyone making clothes for someone else.

Andie was wearing nothing but one of the tunics.  It rode high on her thighs, just barely covering everything it needed to, and part of me was trying not to stare while the other part reveled in so much bare skin.  She had nice legs, too, and I wondered if she was at all athletic.  I couldn’t remember ever seeing her doing sports at school, but I hadn’t paid that much attention to her.

Mintra pulled at the fabric, and it lengthened at the bottom.  She scrunched it, and it shortened.  She tugged, pulled, yanked, and pinched until the shirt fit Andie’s body snugly, showing off curves I hadn’t even realised she possessed.  And her legs.  She really ought to have put on some pants. 

Andie held up her arms and spun around in front of me.  I didn’t think she realised that holding her arms up like that made the hem ride up and almost – _almost­_ expose more than she’d be comfortable letting me see.  I was at war with myself; part of me wanted to tug the hem up a little further, and the other part of me was chanting ‘ _fifteen, she’s fifteen, she’s fifteen!’_ – as if I needed the reminder.  The age of consent was sixteen, which the back of my mind helpfully reminded me she would be turning in a few days, but back on earth her little show would have gotten us both thrown in jail for being underage. 

She was talking to me, I realised.  “What do you think?  Does it look nice? …Grey?”

I’d been too quiet for too long.  I blinked, and nodded.  “It looks great,” I said, and to my intense embarrassment, my voice came out a little higher than normal.  “But.  Um.  Don’t take this the wrong way, but why don’t you go try on some _pants_ now?”

She laughed at me.  The little minx actually _laughed_ as she checked her hemline and said, “Oops!” in a tone that didn’t fool me one bit.  I wondered if this was flirting.  I didn’t know how to flirt, and didn’t know how to tell when I was being flirted with.  I’d never regretted that until recently, when I so desperately wanted to, to show her I was interested without coming right out and asking her like a complete nerd if she was interested back.  I thought she was.  Mintra thought she was.  But I didn’t know for sure. 

She went and put some pants on at least, and I felt my blood pressure drop several degrees.  I’d never known that hanging out with a girl was going to be so _dangerous._   I was learning things about myself that I’d never known – never even considered – until she came into my life.  I think my heart stopped when she started to take off the shirt, though.  I may have made some sort of noise, because she stopped with it halfway up her body, and said “Chill.  I’ve got a tank top on underneath it.” I thought she smiled, but her shirt was hiding her face and then when it was over her head, she had her expression under control. 

Apparently her definition of tank top and mine were two vastly different things.  It had no sleeves, so her entire arm was bare.  It was skintight and outlined even her bra through the thin material.  I think I choked again, but she was _technically_ covered, and I didn’t say anything outright. 

She laughed at me again, but I found myself laughing too, and a rush of warmth went through my chest.  It was really nice to have a friend – even if I’d practically gone through hell to keep her.

 

We spent about a week and a half in Mintra’s house, me struggling to remember my earliest lessons.  Usually a person came into the knowledge of their power between the ages of five and ten.  At ten the formal training started, though if the child had been born into a magical family, as I had been, the unofficial training started as soon as the power manifested. 

Andie had spent five, almost six years of her life with the power inside her, even if it hadn’t manifested – or if it had, she’d never noticed it doing so.  That amount of untrained time, with the maturing power inside her, was going to take a lot to undo, but we were making progress. 

And Mintra, who had never had any children, seemed to have adopted Andie as her own daughter.  It made me laugh to see them in the kitchen together, cooking or baking, and making a mess but having a grand time of it.  There was warmth in those days that I couldn’t ever remember having felt before and part of me wondered if my life might have been like this if my mother had lived.  I made the journey – alone – back to Wizard City for a book from my house, and found it preparing for war.  The streets were almost empty, and the few people I did see had grim expressions on their faces.  Almost the whole thing was under barricade, and I nearly didn’t get into my own house.  I packed the largest bag I could find full of my clothes and made sure the house was locked up tightly behind me.  I didn’t stop to find out what was going on; the mages attack was on everybody’s mind, and it was clear from the way they were acting, but not even I could avoid overhearing some of the most frightening words ever spoken in Aramalan:  that the mages were looking for a way to open the Well of Darkness.

I suppressed a shiver and hurried to get back down to the airship port.


	9. Untitled Chapter (Andie)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Please ignore my author comments.

It felt like having a house of my own.  Mintra was downstairs running her shop most of the day, and Grey and I lived upstairs, practicing magic and learning more about each other.   My sixteenth birthday came and went with a little party, and I felt a small pang in my chest over my parents.  I’d go back to them one day, but for now, I had so much to do here.  Grey went out every few days and returned with history books and maps and usually a little trinket of some sort for me – in addition to the hair clip, I now had a wide bracelet, two rings, and a necklace, all made of silver and set with precious stones. 

At home, the jewelry would have been worth a fortune, I was sure, but here the gems were as common as grass.  I sometimes wandered the market forum, and became friends with the girl who ran the restaurant I’d stumbled into to change my first day here.  Her name was Ilianna, and she was also the friend of the girl who worked in the Skyport, whose name I learned was Belitha.  They called me Andreanna, because I couldn’t get them to say Andie, and I didn’t like being called Andrea.  And I learned.

Most of the powerful magic users – the mages and wizards – identified most closely with an element.  For some it was metal, and those usually became the workers who shaped the jewelry and other things that needed worked metal to function.  For others, wood, or water like Grey.  I was pretty sure mine was wind, though I would have preferred fire, and not just because of my last name.  I’d always been something of a pyro, and loved setting things on fire.  I was usually careful about it; I’d keep a glass of water nearby, and never burned something I thought would get out of control.  My friends Riha and Hallie used to say it was because my name was Byrne, I felt like I had a reputation to live up to, but that wasn’t it at all.  I just liked to watch the flames. 

That had changed a little bit since I’d seen Arama on fire; I’d gotten a close look at just what an out of control fire could do, and it didn’t have quite the same mystery or romance for me anymore. 

Grey was in Wizard City on some sort of private mission; when I’d asked about it the only thing he’d said was that it was a secret, and that I’d find out later.  Mintra was downstairs in the shop, and I was meant to be making a special dinner.  In truth it wasn’t all that special, but it was something neither of them had ever had before – breakfast for dinner.  I’d gotten ahold of some bacon and eggs, and more of that not-coffee that I’d first discovered in the Skyport, and something that doubled as a pancake mix.  Neither of them had ever even heard of pancakes, and I was pleased that I’d be able to show them something new for once. 

Grey would be coming back soon, and I was looking forward to seeing what he thought about my cooking.  Almost as if thinking about him conjured him up, I heard the door slam and Grey’s voice floated up the stairs. 

“Andie!  Where are you?” 

He sounded upset, I realised, and put down the spatula.  He burst into the kitchenette with a wild look in his eyes.  “Thank god.  Okay.  You’re safe, good.  You need to go back.  This is more serious than either of us thought.”  Even his hair looked wild, sticking out in every direction.

It took me a moment to get past the way he looked and think about what he’d actually said.  “What?  No way!” 

I couldn’t go back now!  There was still so much to learn, so much I had to do here. 

“You don’t understand.   The rumours going around Wizard City say that the mages are up to something infinitely more dangerous than just a war.  A war we could handle.  Some are saying that they’re looking for the Well of Darkness.”  He said the words as though he expected me to know what they meant, and for a moment, I was a little confused that I didn’t.  And then I remembered the reason we were arguing now was because I wasn’t from here and didn’t belong, and had no place in something like this.

“I don’t know what that is,” I said, but it lacked heat.  I was surprised by the turns my own thoughts were taking.  Who was he to say I didn’t belong?  Wasn’t I a wizard in training, an apprentice  of sorts?  This _was_ my place.  This _was_ where I belonged – and then I remembered that I had family who thought I was dead, and my breath caught in my throat.  I couldn’t just abandon them to some half-baked quest to keep the mages from getting their hands on whatever this Well of Darkness was.  I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten my parents – and it wasn’t the first time this had happened.  The longer I spent in Arama, the less I thought about home at all.  This _was_ my home now.

Grey sighed heavily.  “I forget how much you don’t know,” he muttered, and I could see his thoughts swimming behind his violet eyes – _not my place, not my war, and not my business._  “It’s kind of a legend.  You know the story of Pandora and her box, which in her curiousity she opened and unleashed horrors into the world, only managing to close it before hope got away?”  I nodded.  “Well this is the exact opposite.  It’s not hope in that well, it’s possibly the source of all evil.  Legend has it that the last time the well was opened the mages were created because they took whatever came out of it into themselves, and the Roman Empire crumbled on Earth in the backlash.”

I whistled.  “But it’s the same as before,” I said.  “I can’t just go back while you stay here, and I’m left wondering if you’ll ever come back.  I won’t leave you.”

He exploded.  “What do you think you can do?  A half-trained wizard with barely a month’s worth of practice behind you, you have no hope of fighting with us!”

“I don’t want to fight with you; I just don’t want to be left behind!  What’ll I do if you never come back, Grey?  Would you want to be in my place?  How about I make you go back, and you won’t be able to come back here, and if I never came back you’d have to wonder forever what happened to me!”  I didn’t say the words that were damming up in my throat – that I was pretty sure I was falling in love with him, and I didn’t want to lose him.  Not like this. 

He relaxed slightly.  “It’s just a rumour, anyway,” he said finally.  “And I understand.  If I had to go to school and wait for you to come back, I’d go nuts.”  He said it so quietly that I wasn’t quite sure I’d heard him correctly.  He raked a hand through his hair.  “But the possibility is there.  We won’t have any way of knowing if they’re actually after it, or if they’ve found it, until it’s too late for us to do anything.”

The answer to that particular riddle sprang into my head so quickly that I gasped.  “There’s a simple way around that,” I said.  He looked up.  I took a deep breath.  “We go looking for it first.”

I counted the seconds before he reacted to that, waiting for it to sink in through the granite block he called a skull.  I was up to seven before his eyes widened. 

“You’re insane!  We can’t just drop everything and go looking for a legend.  And what would we do with it if we found it?”

“We could destroy it,” I suggested, but I could see him start to shake his head.  Before he could interrupt me again, I continued.  “Or we could take it to the wizard’s council.  Isn’t that what they’re for?  They’ll know what to do with it, right?” 

He was silent for so long that I wondered if he was about to explode again.  Finally he sighed.  “Alright.  Its…not a terrible plan.  And it beats sitting around here and waiting for the bottom to fall out.”  He flashed a grin at me, and I felt my heart go out a little further, get a little bit more lost to him.  “So,” he continued, in a completely different tone.  “Didn’t you tell me you were fixing something different for dinner tonight?”

I laughed.  Well, there was that old saying that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach.  “I was trying, but then you came in here acting all crazy,” I teased. 

“I wasn’t acting crazy.”

“You were totally being crazy.  Like, Snoopy-crazy.” 

He groaned.  I really hadn’t let him live down showing up in his pajamas.  He didn’t usually wear them around the house – he was too much a gentleman to be seen in his pajamas when he was actually thinking about it – but I knew he still slept in them.  I couldn’t help myself, and laughed again.  Everything felt lighter between us for some reason. 

For my part, I was feeling better that we weren’t going to be sitting around here doing nothing for the rest of my time in Arama.  I loved the town, and I liked the girls, and – well, yes, there was Grey – but my first and only adventure here had been cut short by Firewind’s interference, and I’d been kind of looking forward to it.

This had no definite end, and no real definite goal, and it had a higher than normal chance of going to hell in a hand basket, but…

I was looking forward to it.

I took up my spatula with a light heart and started cooking.

 

Grey leaned back in his chair with a satisfied look on his face.  “That was delicious, Andie,” he said appreciatively.  “I had no idea you could cook.”

I felt myself blush a little.  “Not very much.  But I’ve always been told that while I don’t have much variety, the flavour is good.”

“Whoever said that is right.  That was really good.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that I’d make it for him as often as he wanted, as long as he didn’t leave me.  I didn’t say it, but it was a near thing.  Mintra, for her part, finished eating and dismissed herself from the table with a sly wink at me.  I was pretty sure she had a fairly good idea of how I felt about Grey, but I didn’t want to know if he’d talked to her about me – or if she knew how he felt for me in return. 

It kept me up at night sometimes, knowing that he was just in the next room over, and it wouldn’t take much effort on my part to just get up, walk the few feet over to his room, and confess everything, just throw myself on whatever he felt like giving me in return. 

So far I hadn’t, but waiting, and wondering, and practically living with him – now I was cooking with him, and should I change my name to Snow before or after the wedding? – it was all driving me crazy. 

So instead of blurting out my feelings, I just smiled at him and told him I was glad he liked it. 

After dinner, we dragged some of the books out of his room and started reading, looking for anything that mentioned the Well of Darkness, and gave any possible clues as to its whereabouts.  I was hoping I’d be able to find something soon, and maybe impress him with my information hunting, so I was only half excited when he let out a whoop and leapt out of his chair.

“I can’t believe no one’s noticed this before,” he said.  “If this is still accurate, this is pretty much a road map to exactly where it’s supposed to be.” 

“It can’t be that easy,” I said.  “People must have been looking for it before we did.  How did so many people miss something that obvious?”

Grey grinned.  “This book is written in English.  We may speak it here, but the words don’t look the same when they’re written down.  Its why we’ve started spending five years on Earth when we turn fifteen, so that we can do things like this.”  He tossed the comment out casually, as if he had no idea what it meant.  I suddenly felt kind of bad; if he was meant to be spending this time on Earth, and I was interfering with it, was I making things harder for him? 

I didn’t want to go back.  If Grey wanted me to, he’d have to drag me by the hair, and I was pretty sure I’d convinced him I was better off staying here.  But maybe once we found the Well – if we found it, because I still couldn’t believe it could be that simple – we could go back together.  I’d think of something to tell my parents, and then Grey could finish out his time on earth. 

After so much time, though, what could I tell my parents?  They believed I’d been kidnapped, or worse by now.  They’d have gone to the police.  I would have to answer questions that had no answers. 

 _I couldn’t go back._   Even if I wanted to –and I missed my parents, when I could remember them, and my friends – who I hadn’t thought about in weeks – I couldn’t.  I did miss them, but I _was_ forgetting about them, and … I had to stay. 

For some reason, this didn’t make me as sad as it might have.  Because Grey belonged here, and I wanted to stay with him.  And maybe one day, I’d go back, when I was fully trained, and I’d check up on my parents and let them know I was alive and well, and try to apologise for all the hell.  I didn’t want to do this to them – they’d been good to me.  But I didn’t belong there any more than Grey did, and now that I knew what I’d be missing, I’d forever hate the flat colours and magicless world.  I felt torn straight down the middle, and then I looked up and Grey was smiling at me, and it didn’t matter where I was, as long as I was with him. 

We made plans to head out in three days. 

 

Whatever Grey had seen in the book that made him so sure of where we could possibly find the Well made absolutely no sense to me.  I looked over it several times, but I wasn’t familiar enough with the terrain to know much of where we were going.  I just had to follow Grey and trust that he knew what he was doing. 

One of the things that worried him the most was the fact that we would be taking another airship – not to Wizard City, not yet, but as it would have taken about a month overland according to him, he decided to take a chance and try the transport.  He warned me several times not to go near the railing, and finally I had to promise not to leave the cabin before he’d settle about it.  This trip through the Skyport was nothing like the first.  For one, all the mages had been exiled from the city because of the rumours. 

“I thought this was supposed to be neutral territory?” I asked Belitha while we were waiting for our ship. 

She smiled helplessly.  “It’s been cutting down on business, for sure, but it doesn’t change the fact that they attacked.  That’s as good as asking to get themselves banned, and I’m sure whoever organized it knew that before they started.  I just wish I knew what they were up to.  Where are you and Greyvaan going, then?”

I had to shrug.  I don’t think I could have found it on a map, much less told anyone.  “I’m not entirely sure.  We’re heading out to look for something, but,” and I leaned forward conspiratorially, lying through my teeth, “I don’t know what or where.”

She winked.  “Alone on a mystery journey with one of the handsomest guys our age,” she said.  “You’re so lucky.  He really likes you, you know.” 

I felt my heart leap into my throat.  “Of course he does,” I said, trying to tell myself that she couldn’t know what I’d hoped so fiercely for.  “I’m his best friend.”  He’d told me that several times, and while it made me happy to know I meant _something_ to him… It wasn’t what I wanted.

Belitha just shook her head.  “Believe what you want.  Maybe it’s just because you’re so close to him, but me and Ilianna, we’ve talked about it.  We’ve never seen him so besotted with anyone.  He looks at you like you personally hung the moon and stars just for him.”  She leaned closer and lowered her voice.  “I like you, Andreanna, but Greyvaan’s been like a little brother to us since we were all kids.  Don’t be breaking his heart, okay?”

I smiled, and even as it stretched across my face I could feel that it didn’t reach my eyes.  “No fear there,” I said.  “I’m more worried about him breaking mine.”

Her face lit up in sudden recognition.  “You two,” she started, but then laughed before she could finish speaking. 

“What’s up, girls?” At Grey’s voice behind me, I realised why.  I turned around, pasting a huge smile on my face.

“We’re just talking about you,” I said with total honesty.  He flushed. 

“Nothing bad, I hope,” he muttered, and flicked a glance between the two of us – Belitha still shaking with giggles she refused to explain, and me just looking at him.  His face turned redder, and I had to cover my mouth to hide my sudden urge to laugh. 

“Not bad,” Belitha finally gasped out.  “Your ship’s taking off in about fifteen minutes,” she said, glancing at one of the clocks I hadn’t figured out how to read.  “You’d best be going.  Andreanna,” she said as we turned to go.  I paused and looked back at her. 

She made a heart with her hands and mouthed ‘take care of him’ at me, and it was my turn to blush.  I nodded, and followed after Grey before he got even more curious.

The ship we were taking to wherever was much smaller than the one that had flown to Wizard City.  “Less people going,” Grey said.  “So not much need for a huge, expensive ship.”

I was surprised that people were heading out that way at all, and said so. 

“Well, there are some that live out that way.  A few people are unable or unwilling to live in the big cities like Wizard City or Arama.  So they go out and live by themselves, or start little villages with their family or friends.”  

Grey was so knowledgeable about almost everything that I sometimes despaired of ever learning what I’d need to know.  I didn’t even know this much about the city I’d grown up in, and I’d lived there my whole life. 

We boarded without incident, and I immediately went to our cabin, making a face at Grey when he followed me.  “I’ll stay here,” I told him.  

The look he gave me was pure relief.  “I’m sorry,” he said.

“I understand.”  I looked past him.  “If it had been you to fall off the airship, I probably wouldn’t want you to get anywhere near one.”

“It was a close race,” Grey admitted.  “Between ‘we have to go’ and ‘let’s just walk.’  I figured that you’d probably prefer the airship ride, since the last one ended so badly.”

I gave him a curious look, wondering what he meant by that.  He flashed his lopsided grin at me. 

“You never actually finished the ride,” he clarified.  “So I figured you’d want to give it another try, at least once.”

Understanding dawned, and I wanted to hug him.  Something kept me back, though, that fear that he’d take it wrong.  I recalled the kiss he’d given me when he’d come back during the mage’s attack on Arama, and dismissed it as a spontaneous gesture of worry and relief.  “Thank you,” I said, and couldn’t stop my answering smile. 

 

The ride on the airship was as thrilling, for all I spent it in the cabin.  I was able to get out once, just before we landed, and watched the ship carefully dock at the Skyport.  It was a testament to the captain’s skill at piloting, that landing; it barely shuddered as we touched down, and the whole process was smooth. 

When Grey and I disembarked, I looked around at the completely unfamiliar terrain.  We were deep into the mountains, and while the town and Skyport were in a large, carefully cleared area, the forest could be seen encroaching on the outskirts and as far as the eye could see it was nothing more than trees and hills and more mountains.  In the far distance I could see the mountains were capped with white and even further, I could see the clouds that rung the highest peaks like haloes, almost close enough to touch. 

I took a deep breath and could almost taste the chill in the air.  It felt sharp and cool, a totally different quality than any air I’d ever breathed before.  Having spent my entire life beside the ocean, I’d never been this high up before, or seen real mountains except in movies and on television. 

My eyes were wide as I stared around, trying to see everything at once.  “It’s beautiful,” I whispered.

“Yeah,” Grey said softly, but when I glanced at him, he was looking at me.  I felt myself smile at him without meaning to.  His answering smile was bright as the sun, and he gestured for me to follow him.  I hoisted my bag over my shoulder and went with him.  We’d decided to use this little town as our base; they had an inn, and it was situated almost in the middle of the radius Grey said the Well would be in, if it was in this area at all.  Luckily we wouldn’t need to do much traipsing through the forest, more of the plan that I hadn’t been able to follow at all, but Grey was confident that if it was here, we’d find it without having to leave the inn unless we absolutely wanted to. 

 _Or unless something forced us to,_ I thought, because standing there in that remote place, I suddenly had a bad feeling about everything.  I worried what would happen if we found it.  The Well of Darkness, the source of evil in the world, if Grey’s legends were to be trusted.  _Why were we going to look for it again?_  

Oh yeah.  To keep it out of the hands of the mages.  Hopefully.  If that was what they were really after in the first place.

I suddenly saw so many ways this could go wrong, but we were here now, for better or for worse.  The only thing left to do was look. 

It would, Grey had told me, take several days to prepare the spell, days in which I would be free to do whatever I wanted.  It wasn’t until the actual searching began that he’d need me there with him, both to help him look as well as keep him grounded in the here and now. 

So I spent some time exploring the little mountain-bound hamlet.  It was fairly modern for all that it was in the middle of nowhere.  I guessed that being one of the outermost villages with a Skyport would do that.  For the most part, I enjoyed it.  It was nice to finally see something other than Arama, and as Grey had predicted, I had enjoyed the trip here despite spending in the cabin for both our peace of minds. 

**(EDITING NOTE; SKIPPING AHEAD A BIT HERE BECAUSE IT’S BORING.  FILL IN OR EDIT THIS OUT LATER.)**

Grey took a deep breath and focused his eyes on the scrap of parchment on the table before us.  His eyes were neon, something I’d come to enjoy seeing in the weeks we’d spent training together, and I wondered if he was having second thoughts about what we were doing.  I told myself at first that I wasn’t, and then I realised I was.

I didn’t know if I wanted to do this.  I was afraid of what we would find, if we found anything, or if this was an exercise in futility while the mages discovered the Well somewhere else and used it for their own gain.  The parchment flashed, then, and I pushed the thoughts out of my head, braced and ready to help Grey with the spell.  Spidery lines formed on the parchment, and Grey gasped.

“Now!”

I focused the way Benjin had taught me, and then picture doors in my mind that swung open.  There were no real spells to be learned, not in the way the students in Hogwarts learned them, but keywords to releasing the energy stored within our bodies.  That was what caused the division in magic between people, and why so few were wizards or mages.  The words wizard and mage simply dictated how a person used the energy they carried, but the lesser magic-users, the ones who could do the simpler spells like operating the gondola lifts in Arama, or opening doors without hinges in solid walls, they were simply unable to store and access as much magic.  There were accessories that could be used to store it, which explained the popularity of the jewelry, and the jewelers, gem cutters, and Metallourgos who created it all. 

 This was what I had learned under Grey’s tutelage, and I used every bit of what I knew now, and as the doors in my mind formed and opened, the key _was_ the door, inviting Grey in, letting the power out.  I felt it when he harnessed the power and added it to his own; it felt dizzying, like I was a glass of water being poured out.  I wondered if glasses were happy to hold the water, and if they regretted being emptied.  Then I told myself I was being ridiculous, and focused on giving Grey whatever I could. 

I made sure, though, to keep a measure of reserve in my giving; something else Grey had taught me was that we needed our magic to keep us functioning, and that in magic-handlers who steeped themselves in it – as wizards and mages did – the magic acted like blood, keeping us going.  I had exhausted myself the first time I used magic in the duel against Raphaelim Firewind because I had just poured everything I had into the magic, without keeping any for myself, and the result was a lot like being cut very badly and losing a lot of blood.  So I made sure this time, that as much as Grey had to take, he didn’t take everything, and I became dizzy but nothing more. 

The parchment flashed white, then black, then silver, and the spidery lines solidified into a map.  I recognized it – a little.  I’d seen the map of the surrounding area hanging in the common room of the inn, and I thought I could make out familiar shapes on the map that we were creating now, but it wasn’t an exact copy.  I realised why a moment later; it wasn’t the whole town, only a portion of it, and the map stretched out far into what I thought was wilderness. 

Grey shouted something I didn’t understand, and the light went out.  The energy flowing around the room poured back into me and I staggered slightly under the onslaught, but I was only a little bit winded, kind of like running up a long flight of stairs, rather than the all-encompassing exhaustion that had swept over me the first time I’d used magic.  I grinned at Grey, and saw him grinning back. Between us on the table lay a map that would lead us to the Well of Darkness.

Whatever happened next would come after we found it.


	10. Untitled Chapter (Grey)

_We did it!_ I hadn’t been sure the map would work, not at all.  By myself, it might have failed.   I looked up at Andie and saw her looking at me and felt a flush of warmth.  “Good job,” I said, and bent to study the map we’d created.  “See, look, you can see the village here, and this leads right to where it should be.”

She leaned over the parchment, her hair falling over her shoulder.  She kept coming up with new ways to wear the clip I’d given her so long ago, and surprising me.  For a moment, looking at her took precedence over the map.  Having spent so much time with her, I was almost getting used to seeing her.  She wore everything I’d given her, all the jewelry, and had bent her head with Mintra to create new clothing styles.  With Andie coming as she did from Earth, and the modern American ideals of fashion deeply ingrained, she’d helped Mintra revitalize the store.  Everyone offered the usual designs, the tunics of varying lengths, the leggings that could be shorts or tight or loose or long.  _Everyone_ who sold clothes in Arama had those, and everyone who shopped in Arama was accustomed to them.  But Andie brought dresses and skirts and tee shirts and flared jeans, slippers and boots and sneakers and sandals.  Tank tops, sweat pants, corsets, hoodies – just thinking about it made my head swim.  I had no interest in fashion; as long as I was covered, I didn’t care what I wore.  But looking at her across the table from me now, in a sleeveless dress that didn’t even come close to touching her shoulders – it should have been indecent, and some of the older citizens of Arama were shocked and scandalized the first time Andie had worn it – and bared her legs from mid-thigh, with the knee-high boots that left only a thin strip of skin to tease and tantalise –

She was beautiful.  I’d thought it when I first saw her at school, in her flat-coloured jeans and baggy tee shirts, but seeing her now, in jewelry _I_ had gotten her, in a dress she had designed – a skin-tight dress that emphasized her curves – well, it was no wonder the older folks were muttering.  She was physically beautiful, and I knew that behind her silver eyes – they flashed purple when she was doing magic, and I think they might have been grey on Earth, but here, in proper light, they were as silver as her accessories – behind those beautiful eyes was a sharp mind, intense curiousity, furious temper and all around just…

Perfect. 

I was in love with her, lock, stock and barrel.  Falling hard and fast, I never had a chance.  And looking at her now, flushed with our victory in creating the map, I wondered if it was possible to be so young and so sure.

My father wouldn’t think so.  He considered me little better than a child, something I’d come to understand when he sent me back from Wizard City.  I had no idea where he’d gone in the time since.  No one had seen or heard from him.  I worried, but I was confident that he knew what he was about.  It probably had to do with the war effort, which he’d obviously known about before I had.  It was just so like him to do something like that, to keep me in ignorance just because he didn’t feel I was mature enough for it…

There was no way he’d believe me mature enough to have fallen in love.  I don’t think he even realised I knew what it was, though I had faint recollections of his marriage to my mother.  They’d been in love, and had met in their teens.  I remembered Mintra telling me that much.  So much in love, that years after her death, my father had never remarried.  Never even, to my knowledge, taken another love or even any friends.  Mintra was the only one who’d stuck around, and that had been mostly for my benefit, I was sure. 

But I could easily see my future stretching out in front of me, long decades with Andie by my side.  My biggest problem – and it _was_ a problem – was the fact that I had no idea how she felt about me, beyond a good friend.   I had no illusions on that score; she may have been _my_ best friend – my only real friend – but she still had a life and friends on earth who would be waiting for her.  I felt a pang of guilt for not trying harder to get her to return to them, but they’d had her since they were all children together.

I’d had no one, and I was feeling selfish with her.  She wanted to stay with me, and I knew her arguments were sound.  If I’d been forced back with no way to get to Arama, and her here, I’d go mad wondering what had happened to her and if everything was okay.  I couldn’t make her go back to worry about me.  And I liked having her here.  We’d made a plan – find the Well of Darkness before the mages could – and worked to implement it – making the map – and as soon as I felt ready to do it, we’d head out in search of the thing. 

I’d heard legends of the Well all my life.  Like the analogy I’d used to describe it to Andie, Pandora’s Box, it pervaded the society in Aramalan.  Stories of monsters like the minotaur who guarded the labyrinth surrounding the Gate Room were attributed to it; indeed, the minotaur itself was supposed to have come from the Well, and it took fifty wizards working together to tame it and end its rampage.  They couldn’t destroy it, though, and instead they put it to work guarding the hallways.  Other things more terrible than had ever been fully described to me had supposedly come from the Well, too.  I was afraid of what we would find when we got to where it was. 

Until then, though, we had several days in which to recover, because after a magical drain such as creating the map had been, I wasn’t feeling confident enough to go trekking across country in search of the source of evil in our world. 

“So when do we leave?”

Andie, of course, was eager.  She bounced, and both her hemline and her…top…half…did interesting things with the motion.  I could feel my face heating up in a blush and averted my eyes. 

“In a few days,” I told the ceiling.  “I’d rather we take a little break to rest before we set out after it.” In my peripheral vision I could see her bounce again. 

“If we wait too long, it might be too late.”

I closed my eyes outright.  “Um.  Well, that’s why we’re not going to wait too long,” I said.  “We’re just going to take a few more days to recover from the spell and to make sure we have everything.”

“We have the map and ourselves. What else do we need?  Are you talking about a tent and a cooler and sleeping bags and other stuff you take camping?  Why are your eyes closed?”

I opened them, and saw her face inches from mine.  I had a lightning quick flashback to the one time I’d kissed her, and the time on the airship before that when I _should_ have kissed her, and wondered _should I kiss her now?_   If I didn’t, I might regret it.  Then she moved away, and I regretted missing the chance. 

“By everything we need,” I said, belatedly answering her, “I mean supplies, clothes, and making sure that we’re both prepared.”  

She nodded in understand, and sighed.  “A few days, huh?  I hate waiting.”

I rather thought she would, and had to conceal my smile. 

 

The days passed quickly, and we completed our preparations with time to spare.  When I judged that we weren’t going to get anything else done by sitting around, we gathered what food we could carry, some changes of clothes – it was snowing out, and bid fair to be frozen out in the forest proper – took a deep breath, and left the inn.

“I’ve never seen so much snow!”  Andie was running around, arms outstretched, like a little kid in the snow.  It was falling in thick, heavy flakes, already starting to drift up against buildings and along the side of the road.  I took a deep breath, watching her laugh with unbridled enthusiasm.  “I lived by the beach my whole life, and we never ever got snow like this,” she said, and ran up to me – straight over a patch of ice.  Her shoes slid right over it, but luckily my boots had more traction because she’d fallen right into me.  I caught her, and for the first time realised how delicate she was.  She grinned at me, and thanked me for the rescue before she was off and running again, not having learned any lesson whatsoever. 

I couldn’t help myself, though.  Her laughter was infectious, and by the time we’d left the village behind us we were both laughing so hard tears were streaming down her face and I could barely see to read the map.  It didn’t matter by then what we were laughing about; just hearing her voice ringing through the woods lightened my heart. 

And I had the strangest feeling deep inside, one that I hadn’t been able to shake since we’d made the map.

 _Remember this._  


	11. Untitled Chapter (Andie)

I was torn between ecstatic happiness and overwhelming despair.  Happiness because I was alone on the road with Grey, and there was _snow_ everywhere.  Despair because I had no idea what waited for us at the end of the line, and only a faint idea of the trouble we were walking into.  If we found the Well, we would then have to figure out a way to prevent the mages from finding it – if they hadn’t already – and then get word to the Wizard’s Council in Wizard City and let them know about it.  It would probably mean splitting up.  And while Grey had a better chance of defending the Well if it came to a pitched battle, I had absolutely no chance whatsoever of convincing the Council to come and do something about it.  The majority of Aramalans still believed the Well to be a myth.  I had no opinion one way or another, but I was firmly with Grey – if he believed the mages were going to try for it, and he knew where to find it, then we had to go find it first.

Though it worried me, when I thought on it.  If it had been so easy for us to create the map, couldn’t someone else have done so just as easily?

But he’d found the location in a hand-written book passed down through his family, so it was unlikely that anyone else would come so close.  If I understood the spell correctly, you either had to be within a certain distance of your target, and –or have a better than good idea of knowing where it was.  Because of his great grandmother’s book, we’d had both. 

I could tell just by looking at him now what his mood was like, and took a quick glance at him.  We had been walking all day, and I was looking forward to making camp and sitting for a while, though Grey assured me that once I wasn’t moving the cold would set in.  I wasn’t worried about that; we had blankets, and the fur-lined jacket Mintra had made for me before we left.  Grey looked at the dismally grey sky and judged the sun to be low enough that by the time we set up our small camp it would be getting dark; travelling any more that day would leave us no way to set our camp up, and if I wasn’t as worried about it as him, I knew that we’d need our fire and tent and blankets if we were going to be spending any time out in what was essentially wilderness.

The camp took almost no time to put together.  Grey had the hardest time with the fire, because the snow was melting over the firewood and the flames he was trying to create, dousing them.  I recalled the map-making session, and opened my mind and the magic I could feel inside me.  I could tell Grey wasn’t prepared for it when suddenly the fire burst into life, snapping and burning the wood with a will, and he fell over backwards in surprise.  I had to laugh, but I helped him up at least.

“Why a fire?” I asked, staring into the flames after we’d eaten. 

Grey gave me a confused look.  “Why a fire what?”

“We’re wizards.  We do magic.  But we’re out in the middle of nowhere and have to build a fire.  Why?”  I thought of space heaters and electric blankets and campers, and wondered how they could be so advanced as to have airships, but still require something so primitive as an open flame. 

“Oh.”  He looked curious.  “You know, I don’t know.  It’s just always been this way.  This is why we’re sent to foster on Earth,” he added.  “So that we can bring ideas back with us.  I don’t know how you ended up, though.  Your parents are dead normal.”

I had to laugh.  They didn’t even approve of the games I played, much less anything more imaginative.  It was like they’d gotten together one day and decided to reject creativity wholesale.  I missed them, but it was easier for me because I knew that once I was trained, I could go back and see them.  It didn’t fully occur to me that they had no such option, just the knowledge that I had disappeared one night.  It didn’t occur to me to wonder what they thought about that.

                “I was born and raised in Virginia,” I said, after a moments struggle to recall the name.  “My parents were born and raised in Virginia, as far as I know.  I don’t know how I ended up what I am.  Are there any stories of people going to earth to foster and never coming back?”

Grey nodded solemnly, his eyes turned orange by the dancing fire.  “It happens more than we’d like to think.  Some people can’t create the doorway to get back to the Gate Room.  Others end up lost in the maze and never get free.  And sometimes they just go native; forget who they were and where they came from, and just assimilate into whatever culture they end up in.” 

I hadn’t been here more than three months.  I thought of going back, of never seeing Arama, or the airships, or even the golden sunlight that was so unlike any light I’d ever seen before, that made even the air itself seem infused with magic.  Even without Grey being here, I would be miserable to never see this place again.  I wondered how they could do it. 

I’d taken too long to reply to that and saw Grey checking the map, and leaned over.  “We’re here,” he said, pointing.  We’d come farther than I’d initially thought, but we were still a couple days out from the Well, if the map was accurate. 

“Let’s get some sleep,” he said softly, not entirely oblivious to my mood.  We crawled into the little tent and I fell asleep quickly, despite the feeling of a rock under my blankets that I couldn’t get away from.  _Princess and the Pea much?_ I wondered, but then I was out and it didn’t bother me anymore.

 

I woke up warm and comfortable – a lot more comfortable than I’d fallen asleep.  And my pillow was moving.  Suddenly wide awake, afraid that something had gotten into the tent and was making off with my things, my eyes snapped open.  The only thing I saw was black. 

At first I thought maybe something had happened to my eyes, but then it moved and shimmered green, and I realised it was clothing.  I tilted my head.  I saw Grey’s chin, and the line of his shoulder, and realised that at some point during the night – despite having started out on opposite ends of the small tent – we’d both ended up in the middle, our blankets nestled around us like a cocoon, and I was laying sprawled out on top of him, held in place by one arm across my waist.

It was his breathing that I’d felt, and his chest that I’d mistaken for my pillow.  He stirred, and I froze.  I didn’t know how we’d ended up like this, and for my part I’d have been content to stay, but I didn’t know how he’d feel about it.  I slowly put my hands down and lifted myself up, untangling our legs.  I was nearly free of him when his arm slid off me and hit the ground, jarring him.  His eyes opened, and I nearly squeaked. 

“Andie?”

“Uh.” My mind was blank – I couldn’t think of anything to say, how did I explain this?  In the end I didn’t need to, because he either hadn’t woken up at all, or he went back to sleep, because his eyes closed again and he rolled, leaving me free to move away.  I heaved a sigh of relief and let myself out of the tent.

After being warm enough to sweat inside, the chilly snow was a shock.  It was still dark, though above the trees I could see the sky beginning to lighten with dawn.  Figuring that since I was up I might as well stay awake, I restarted the fire and got some breakfast warming above it.  Just as it was finishing up, the smell of it brought Grey out of the tent, rubbing his arm.  He caught sight of me and grinned, one corner of his mouth lifting higher than the other.  Love welled up inside me, as powerful as anything I’d ever felt before. 

“Good morning,” I said cheerfully. 

“Mornin’,” he mumbled, yawning.  “Smells good.  What is it?”

I had to laugh.  “Bacon and eggs.  You said you like them, right?” 

His eyes widened, and I could see him waking up more fully at the promise of a rare breakfast.  “Where’d you get eggs?”

“Mintra packed them for me with a spell.  She said she knew a person in the little market, and that’s where she got them the first time.”  I looked around at our little campsite.  The wards Grey had settled, in the form of what looked to me like sticks with a bit of paper tied to them, had done their job; there were tracks in the snow that lead up to the ward line, but our camp had remained unmolested in the night.  Well.  Unmolested by animals, at least.  I felt my face heat up as I remembered again how I’d woken up, his arm wrapped around me, my head on his chest.  It was a total From-A-Movie love scene, and I nearly blurted it out right then and there, how much I had come to love him, how long I’d suspected myself of falling for him.

But I stopped myself.  It was too soon; we hadn’t known each other long enough.  And if he didn’t feel the same, I’d die of mortification. 

So I kept quiet, and watched him wolf down the food I’d brought along special for him.  And then we were off again.

The pattern held for the next two days.  We’d walk for a while, make camp before the sun set, and go to sleep.  Every night we started out on opposite sides, almost insultingly far from one another, and every morning I woke up on top of him – or beside him – with his arms around me, and us both in the center, as if we’d both decided while sleeping to make the move. 

I was just grateful I woke up first. 

On the third day, midafternoon, we stumbled into what looked like a burned out clearing.  The map in Grey’s hand flashed like a light bulb and then disintegrated. 

We’d reached the Well.  Whatever happened now was up to us.  I took a deep breath, and followed Grey into the clearing.

 

My first impression was that it was huge.  The walls of the Well – and it was a well, like one you’d draw water up out of – stood at least seven feet tall, towering over me and Grey alike.  There were four massive poles, almost like telephone poles or tree trunks, situated at the corners, and giant streamers hung between them.  I recognized them as a gigantic version of the wards Grey had set around our camps.  The air was thick and smelled like tar, and it stopped me short as I suddenly struggled to catch my breath in the miasma that surrounded us. 

I heard Grey beside me draw in a long breath, almost gasping, and turned to him.  His face was white, and his eyes were wide, and I followed his gaze.  That’s when I saw that the seal had been broken.  The wards were open, and the nastiness seeping out of the Well was what had blackened the surrounding area and made that awful smell.   I couldn’t help it; I gasped too.  Grey ran for the Well, and it took me a moment to think _wow, we actually found it, but,_ and then I was running too.

The seal had been torn straight through.  The streamers that had hung between two of the poles fluttered in a breeze I couldn’t feel.  The closer I came to the Well, the thicker the stench was, and I felt my movements slowing, as if I were trying to run through something thick like molasses.  “Grey,” I tried to shout, but in the dense air it fell flat and came out a whisper.  He wouldn’t have heard me anyway, I think – he was staring, rooted to the ground in deep shock, at the Well.  I struggled to come around the corner, and saw why. 

His father stood there.  He’d introduced himself as Anthony Fergusson, but I knew him here.  In gleaming, glorious white clothes, fur-lined and shimmering, here stood Antrei Snow.  And beside him, Raphaelim Firewind.

We were too late.

I knew a moment of perfect despair at the smug, matching smiles on both their faces, and then the world dimmed around me.  In black and white, what happened next happened in slow motion to my mind.

Antrei raised his hands, summoning a wind that shook the beams where the seal had been.  Grey was launched through the air, coming to rest violently against a faraway tree.  Antrei turned to me, and I couldn’t believe it.  Grey had practically worshipped his father – his father, who now threw him away like so much trash.  Grey wasn’t moving, but I didn’t have time for that, because they were both looking at me, and behind them, coming out of the trees were at least a dozen men and women who all wore the sparkling white clothes I’d come to associate with the mages. 

We were outnumbered seven to one, and with Grey down, I was on my own. 

A half-trained wizard who’d spent most of her life in ignorance of her true self.  I laughed.  It was a bitter sound, even to my own ears.

“And what now?”  I asked, and felt even more like I was in a game.  This time, there was no script to follow, no happy ending waiting after the final boss.  “Are you going to kill us and then what?”

Raphaelim Firewind stepped forward; Antrei was pale, his skin almost as white as his cloak, and though he opened his mouth no sound came out.  I looked at Firewind instead, who had been pleasant to me in a nasty sort of way; I was a little prod at Grey, and I understood that now.  He’d been nice to me because he wanted to be nasty to Grey.

Looking at him, I wondered how I’d ever thought him good looking. 

“Little Andreanna Burntree,” Raphaelim said, and his voice echoed with strange harmonics.  “A little girl from Virginia, playing with toys she doesn’t deserve.  Andrea Byrne.”

I shuddered as he spoke my name for no reason I could figure out.  Just the sound of my name from his lips was disgusting. 

All around us, I could see the snow falling harder.  Grey, outside the circle of burned vegetation and uprooted trees, was being covered by it slowly.  He still didn’t move, and my heart leapt up into my throat at the thought that he might not be alive.  But the snow didn’t fall within the circle, and the mages crept closer, surrounding us. 

“Congratulations,” Firewind said.  “So many wizards tried and failed to find this place.  It wasn’t within them to know the location.  Good job on managing what so many have died trying to do before you.  Too bad you were too late; you’re a far sight prettier than Antrei.  But we needed him to open the wards.” 

I flicked a glance at Antrei, at his white clothes.  I’d never seen him in anything but black before.  It looked unnatural, moreso because I understood now that the clothes were just a physical manifestation of what was inside you.  A wizard could not wear white, or gold.  The clothes would change as soon as they were touched, and the gold would burn them.  I’d seen it firsthand, in Mintra’s shop.  We wore gloves when handling the clothes, and they were an ugly, neutral shade of grey until I’d accidentally brushed against one of them with bare skin.  It turned black almost as fast as I could blink, and then a mage – Mintra didn’t like them, but she ran a shop in Arama, and had to cater to them – snatched it out of my hands.  Almost as quickly as it had turned black it became white as she handled it.  She took it to Mintra and bought it, and I’d been left with the memory of seeing the clothing change myself.  I knew what it meant to see Antrei Snow wearing white, now.  I also understood a little better why Grey had frozen like he had.  He knew better than I.

“Why did you need him?”  It was absolutely the worst time to be asking questions, but I’d always been curious, and I hoped that if he talked long enough, I might find out what we could do.  Antrei’s eyes rolled, and his mouth moved again.  His arms came up, and I braced myself for a blow, but saw Firewind put up his hand to forestall whatever attack was coming. 

“There’s no harm in telling her why she’s going to die,” Firewind said calmly.  “Because wizards sealed it against us, little Andrea.  We could find it; we have always known where it was, but while the seal held, it was nothing more useful than a jar of flowers.  Just a pretty thing to look at, without being any good to anyone.”  He turned to admire the Well, and I followed his gaze, shuddering again.  It was a filthy thing, and I was disgusted by it.  He turned again, and I saw what looked like a statue laying on the ground, a man with set eyes and a firm expression.  It looked completely out of place, and something of my wonder must have crossed my face, because the smile Firewind gave me then was almost as filthy as the Well itself.

“The wizard who created the seal,” he said, and kicked it.  Part of the statue crumbled, and a tiny bit of blood leaked out of the open area.  I realised that it had been human, once, was still partially human though the years had turned him to stone, and almost gagged.  “Yes.  That’s what it took to seal the Well of Darkness so long ago.  Who will do it now, I wonder, when the wizards will be no more just as soon as Antrei lets us into Wizard City?  Oh,” Firewind continued in a different tone.  “They can say we are equal, that all people are equal, but I have seen for myself how mages are despised, spit upon in the streets, loathed and we have despaired!”

“Because you’re disgusting!” I shouted thoughtlessly.  “Because you have power just the same as the wizards and look what you do with it, you make the Well and you’re _nasty._   Any reputation you have, you deserve!”

Firewind’s eyes narrowed, and I glanced again at Antrei.  His expression was almost sad, and he rolled his head towards the tree where Grey had fallen.  As unobtrusively as I could, I glanced at it and couldn’t see Grey – he’d moved while Firewind was talking.  I almost collapsed under the weight of my relief – Grey was alright.  Whatever else happened, at least he was still alive.  And underneath whatever they’d done to Antrei, he still cared. 

“Kill her,” Firewind said, and I watched Antrei’s head bow as his hands came up again.  This time I felt the full force of the power he could command as it struck me, and I was unconscious before I hit the ground.

 

“Where am I?” 

The last thing I remembered was Firewind ordering Antrei to kill me, but obviously he hadn’t succeeded.  I shot straight up from a horizontal position and then wished I hadn’t.  My head throbbed, my arm was in so much pain that I could barely think, and I felt incredibly dizzy.

“Lady Andreanna!  Be at peace, my darling, you’ve been fair injured.”

“Where’s Grey?” I asked, blinking to bring the room into focus.  The young man in front of me – he was probably only a few years older, but I was feeling ancient right them – was wearing a black tunic in the regular style.  I relaxed a little, just knowing I was with wizards.  And alive.  Unless this was some sort of wizard heaven, but I couldn’t believe I’d be in this much pain if I were dead.

“Grey?”  He looked confused, still hovering with a cloth in his hands and a bowl in the other.  I started to get up, but he dropped everything and moved to push me back down into the bed.  Not moving made my dizziness easier to bear anyway, and I let him, struggling to remember Grey’s full name.

“Greyvaan,” I said finally.  “Greyvaan Snow.”

“Ah, Milord Snow.  He is yonder, my lady,” the boy said, gesturing, and I turned my head.  Grey was lying on a little cot not too far from me.  His chest rose and fell with each breath, for all his face was as white as a sheet.  Still, it brought me a little comfort.

“And me,” I said, earning myself a startled glance.  “Where am I?” I clarified, wondering if we should wake Grey up, or just call for a translator. 

“Ah.  Wizard City, my lady.  Milord Snow brought you here after a battle with the mages, and Antrei Snow.”

Grey had battled with them after I was knocked out?  “Tell me everything you know,” I demanded suddenly, eyes narrow.  “Right now.”

“Y-yes my lady.”

It turned out I hadn’t missed a great deal.  From what Grey had told them when he arrived carrying me – I felt horribly embarrassed that he’d had to, even while a flush of warmth stole up my neck about his strength – hey, I wasn’t huge, but he wasn’t that much older than me, either – the mages had somehow suborned Antrei’s loyalty.  How they’d done it, only the mages and Antrei knew, but as it turned out Antrei had been working for them almost the whole time.  It explained a great deal about his behaviour, I thought.  However it had happened, Antrei had joined them and broken the seal on the fabled Well of Darkness.  He had then become possessed by it somehow.  I wasn’t too clear on this point; no one was.  But based on what Grey and I had seen, this was the general conclusion the Wizard’s Council had come to.  Either drawn by our presence or on their own business, the mages had been at the Well when Grey and I discovered it, which I remembered.  After Firewind’s order, Antrei sent me flying in much the same way he had Grey, though I didn’t hit anything and came to rest considerably further from the field of battle, landing on my arm at an awkward angle.  It was broken, and though it was healing at a much faster rate than it would have on earth, it would still render me fairly useless for at least a week.  At least I could still walk, I told myself, and continued listening.  Grey couldn’t describe exactly what happened then; he’d hidden himself in the woods, just outside the Well’s circle of influence, and was watching what was going on, but when I was attacked he must have gone into some berserker rage.  At least that was how the boy described it to me, having heard it firsthand from Grey, who clearly didn’t remember much about it but had defeated thirteen mages and his own possessed father entirely on his own, before getting to me and magicking us back to Wizard City.  The magic wasn’t meant to be used like that, which was why gondolas and airships and other conveyances were used, and it had taken a lot out of him.  As soon as his story was told, he’d collapsed, and had been here unconscious as long as I had – three days already, going on four.

I understood the pallour of his face then; the first thing I’d ever done with magic had nearly killed me similarly, but he’d known what he was doing.  We were here, and the Wizard’s Council knew what the mages were up to.  I eased myself up, and realised that I wasn’t so dizzy if I didn’t move too quickly. 

“My lady, there is food if you want.” 

My stomach made it known to me that it hadn’t had anything but water and broth for three days, and not much before that while we were trailing through the woods, looking for the Well.  “Yes please,” I said, and he brought something I might have called a sandwhich if it were shaped properly.  I didn’t care at that point what it was, just that it was food, and ate hungrily, if awkwardly, with one hand. 

The dizziness receded entirely once I’d eaten, and I raised myself up off the little cot, making my way over to Grey’s bed.  The boy quietly left us, shutting the door behind him.  I didn’t turn to look, but kept my eyes on Grey’s face, pale and relaxed. 

“My hero,” I whispered, and gently brushed a bit of his hair away from his eyes.  “I love you, you know.” 

He didn’t stir.  I closed my eyes, and thought of the look of absolute betrayal he’d worn on his face when he discovered his father’s complicity with the mages.  Whatever we were going to do, it would involve taking down Antrei.  I couldn’t ask him to do that; none of us could.  Not his father.  I leaned over and kissed him.  A frisson went through me at the contact, and I smiled to myself.  If I’d ever doubted how I felt, I couldn’t deny that.  I climbed awkwardly to my feet, and left the room.  The boy who’d been waiting on me was perched on a little bench just outside the door.

“What’s your name?” I asked him. 

“Callun, my lady.”  He swallowed, visibly nervous.  “Callun Starsea.”

“Take me to the Wizard’s Council, Callun.”

“Y-yes, my lady.”

 

I stood outside the ornately carved doors, tugging at the tunic I wore.  I’d been wearing it since that last day beside the Well, and I felt disgusting, but what I had to say was more important than a change of clothes.  I wouldn’t have minded a bath, however.

Callun knocked at the door and then scurried away.  He kind of reminded me of a chipmunk, and I dubbed him Chip in my mind.  The doors swung open to admit me into a large sort of library.  The fourteen wizards who stood there eyed me speculatively.  I was pretty sure there were meant to be fifteen, and then remembered that Antrei had probably been the last.  He was gone now, disappeared with the mages to do whatever their scheme had included. 

“My name is Andrea Byrne,” I announced, more steadily than I felt.  “Otherwise known as Andreanna Burntree.  I wish to begin formal training, as quickly as it can be arranged.”

One by one, they nodded. 

“You are known to us, Andreanna,” one of them, an older woman, said.  “You and Greyvaan Snow discovered the Well of Darkness.”

“Not in time to stop the mages,” another muttered audibly.  The first woman gave him a sharp look. 

“No one could have done better than these two children,” she said.  “That they discovered it at all is the reason the mages have gone into hiding with Antrei rather than storm Wizard City as it stands.”

I stood silently while they conferred.  Grey had told me it was customary to go to the council to request the training; either they would do it themselves if one passed the initial test, or they would set some lesser functionary to do it if the test was failed.  Technically, the apprenticeship to attain the rank of wizard was a five year regime, beginning at the age of ten.  At sixteen, I was far too late to come to it, but if not for Grey I wouldn’t have been there at all.  I’d have been with my family, whose faces were getting harder and harder to recall, and my friends, whose names I didn’t remember any more.  It wasn’t important, though.  They had been there for me when I needed them in my life, and now I was here in Aramalan, and the Council and Grey and Mintra were the ones I needed. 

And I felt a bone-deep need to be involved, because I could not let Grey do this alone.  I had forsaken my family of my own choice; as soon as this was settled, I would go back, and explain everything I could.  Grey’s father was all he’d had in the world, and I couldn’t ask him to fight against Antrei any more than I could have pulled a gun on my mother. 

“We will test you, Andreanna,” said the old woman, turning to me.  My mind snapped back to where I was supposed to be, and what I was doing.  I found myself becoming nervous, because I wasn’t sure what to do, and then we were walking through the hallway together, me and the woman, and she was smiling.

“They are unhappy with Antrei’s loss, and unsure of themselves in its wake,” she said.  “It is not because you are so much older than is customary, or that your circumstances here have been unusual in the extreme, though I admit myself to curiousity.  One day, I hope you will tell me exactly how you came to be here.”

I looked up into her face, and saw her smiling kindly.  “I would be happy to,” I said.  “Even though I’m not entirely sure, myself.” 

“So often it is so,” was her answer, and then a pair of doors was swinging open to admit us.  I took a deep breath and tried to center myself the way I’d been taught, crossing my arms over my chest and lowering my chin to form a protective stance. 

The woman inhaled sharply, one hand going to her mouth.  “Who instructed you before I, child?”

I glanced up at her, and saw her face was white.  I thought for a moment that she was going to have a heart attack right there, but she was merely startled.  “Um,” I said, and for a moment my mind was blank in the face of her shock.  “Greyvaan.”  I had to think about it again to recall his name, and wondered briefly if there was anyone I could talk to about this memory loss.  “And Benjin,” I recalled suddenly.  “Benjin Boite.”  I stood ready to contradict her if she argued with me as Grey had done, but she only shook her head.

“He yet lives?” she whispered, and I suddenly realised they must have had a history.  I looked a little closer at her; she was _so old_ to my eyes.  It was faintly disturbing to imagine her having a lover, much less the wizened old Benjin Boite, but they must have been young once. 

“Um,” I said, and wondered how best to answer that.  “As far as I know?  He’s bound to the forest outside Arama, he said.”  And he’d never mentioned her.  “He found me when I fell off the airship.”

The lady looked at me askance, her expression and mien radiating disbelief.  “You fell off an airship,” she said. 

“Yeah.  Raphaelim Firewind was trying to kill me,” I finished softly.  “He’d followed us onto the airship, and nearly capsized it.  While it was rolling, I fell over the edge.”  I’d never been afraid of heights before, and I still wasn’t afraid of heights so much as falling.  That was an experience I never wanted to try again.

The woman – I didn’t know her name, and didn’t know if this was an appropriate time to ask – was frowning solemnly, considering.  “I recall the report.  No one mentioned you had been lost overboard.” 

If Grey’s reaction to me being alive had been any indication, he was probably too messed up by my supposed death to tell anyone.  “I don’t think Grey mentioned it,” I said.  “He was pretty upset.”

This time her expression turned warm. “He is very much in love with you, I think.” 

I blushed furiously, and tried to deny it, but she ignored me.

“Very well.  What happened has happened.  It is your testing that we are about now.  Defend yourself!”

Sprier than I’d have thought a woman her age to be, she spun around and flung one hand out.  A tidal wave of water came from nowhere, racing towards me.  Instinctively, I put my hands up to defend myself, and felt the energy leaving me in the form of a wind that sprang from nowhere.  It cleaved the tidal wave in two, soaking the room but leaving me where I was.  The woman stood up straight, and then nodded.

“Very good,” she said, and then the test began in earnest.  She probed everything I’d ever learned, imparting new little snippets of information when she discovered me lacking.  Everything I’d learned to do so far was tested, and I was wrung out, dripping wet, and exhausted by the time she was finished.

“You’ll do,” she said.  At least I took some comfort in the fact that she was out of breath as well, though I daresay it was her age and not my skill that left her so.  “I can see, at least, how you have held your own thus far.  You have an incredible untapped potential.  Where did you say you are from?”

I blinked, not expecting this.  “Virginia Beach,” I said after a moment.  “Why?”

She mouthed the words to herself, considering them.  “I will check with the archives,” she said finally.  “I believe there may be more to your story than even you know.  Andrea Byrne, you said your name is?  Byrne,” she repeated, mostly to herself.  “Byrne.”

“Ma’am?”

She waved me off.  “We will accept you into training, even at your age.  It will be nice, for once, to train someone who can take care of themselves and will not need to be coddled like a babe.”  She bowed gracefully, and left me to myself.  I wondered what she would find in the archives, and whether or not they were open to everyone, or just the chosen few. 

My next order of business was to get in touch with Mintra, using the mirrors.  I told her of how our quest had gone, ending with the Well and the mages who’d broken the seal using Antrei Snow’s power.  Her face paled.

“I knew he’d lost a good chunk of himself when Lady Jessalie passed,” she said.  “But I’d no idea that he’d gone so far down as to join with the mages.”

“Jessalie?” I asked, curious.  I figured it was probably Grey’s mother, but no one had ever said much of her to me.  That she had died when Grey was little, I knew, but not much else.

“Ah, child.  Lady Jessalie was Grey’s mum.  She and Antrei were very much in love when they were about your age, and as they grew it grew with them.  She was my best friend, you see, my best friend in all the world, and I was there when Grey was born.  She was so happy to have him, so young and beautiful and _alive._   And then she fell ill, and died, and something inside Antrei Snow broke with her passing.  Grey doted on his father, would have sworn he’d hung the moon and stars in the sky, but I daresay Antrei barely even saw his son after Jessie went.”

“I see,” I said.  I could understand; it might have been a passing thing, something because we were young, but right now – if Grey were to die, I don’t think I’d ever get over him, either.  And Antrei had been married to the girl, had had children with her.  Grey.  Though it might have been different if Grey and I had kids, and something happened to him.  I didn’t know what his reaction would be, but I knew that I would have kept going for the kid’s sake. 

Then I realised I was thinking about Grey and I having children, and I had to cut off the conversation with Mintra because I was choking on my own spit and couldn’t breathe, much less talk. 

After I recovered, I went back to see Grey.  Chip was standing outside the door waiting for me to finish, and I stopped beside him. “Were you waiting for the mirror room?” I asked, because I hadn’t been expecting to see him.

“N-no, my lady!  Milord Snow is awake, and he is asking for you.  He also said,” and his face turned scarlet, “that you probably would get lost wandering around here by yourself, and asked if I would come escort you back to the room.”

I had to laugh, both at Grey’s assumption – which was correct, I’d had another of the apprentices lead me to the mirror room to make the call to Mintra – and Chip’s stammering, blushing discomfiture.  He blushed and stuttered harder to hear me laugh, and so it was that by the time we made it back to the hospital wing, I was laughing so hard tears were coming out of my eyes and Chip’s face was a solid red, his voice entirely silent. 

“My lady!  Milord S-snow awaits!”  He booked it for the other end of the hallway, and I entered the room still laughing until I saw Grey.  His face was still white, and there were dark purple shadows under his eyes.  His cheeks looked hollow, and his eyes flat, and I felt all traces of humor leave me at the sight of him.

“Grey,” I said, and ran to his side, hugging him.  He put his arms around me, and I could feel their trembling.  “Don’t you ever do that again,” I said.  “You scared the hell out of me when I saw you over there, I thought you were dead.”

“Andie,” he said, and his voice was breathy and weak.  I felt tears of a different sort welling up in my eyes.  “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to scare you.  But you scared me too, after my father – after Antrei hit you.  I thought I lost you once.  I don’t think I could do it again.”  He stopped short at the end, and I heard what he hadn’t said. 

_Especially not if it were my father who did it._

He’d looked up to Antrei, his whole life.  Jessalie had died when he was young enough not to remember, and Antrei became his life, and Antrei had betrayed everything.  I didn’t know how he was coping with that part of it, but I remembered Chip’s words that he’d fought fiercely after I fell, even against his father.  All I could do now was offer my support.

“Grey,” I said, my voice soft.  “Whatever it takes, I’m with you.”

His grip tightened.  “Thank you.”

Chip walked in through the door then and caught us out, but if we were embarrassed by it, that was nothing compared to the colours Chips’ face turned.  He stammered more than ever, and in spite of myself I laughed again.  If I really believed it was an impediment, a disability, I wouldn’t have found it so funny, but I’d heard him speak before, and knew that it was just because he was so nervous around me.

“I, I, I,” he said.  “I’m sorry!  My lady, Milord!  F-forgive m-me!” he whirled around to face the door, and I pulled away from Grey.  “The Council, they’re calling for a fete tonight, in honour of you.  The warning you brought,” and while he wasn’t looking at us, his voice was normal, even strong. 

“A fete?” I didn’t know the word.  Fortunately, Grey came to my rescue.

“Like a party, a ball, a dance,” he said.  “This is an impressive honour,” he added.  “I don’t remember the last time one was held in Wizard City, and especially not by the council.”

I looked down at myself.  I still hadn’t had a bath, I was wearing the same clothes – because I had nothing that was clean, and there was no point in washing myself if I was just going to put dirty clothes on.  “A party?” I asked, somewhat horrified.  For once, it was Chip’s turn to laugh at me.

“You will have clothes brought for you, and time to change and prepare, my lady,” he said, and left. 

I looked at Grey.  “I guess we’re going to have a party,” I said, and for some reason the thought made me smile. 


	12. Untitled Chapter (Grey)

I wasn’t sure I was feeling up to a fete, but Andie looked so pleased that I couldn’t gainsay her.  She left to find her clothier and prepare, and Callun brought food for me.  Having a hot meal inside me did wonders for the way I was feeling, and I sent Callun for a clothier of my own.  I needed a bath, too, and called for one. 

After my bath as well as my meal, I was feeling fantastic.  A knock on the door came as I was drying off, and expecting Callun, I called for them to come in. 

“Och, child.  You’re a sight for sore eyes.”

I turned, surprised, and made sure the robe I had been putting on was tied.  “Mintra?”

“Hello darling.  They said they were hosting a fete for you, and that not only was I invited, but I was requested specially to bring you lot some clothes.”  She laid a package down on the table, and gave me a hug.  “It’s so good to see you,” she told me.  “I feared for the worst, when I didn’t hear from you for so long.  And your father.”  She squeezed me a little harder than she meant, I think.  “He loved your mother, and you.  Whatever they’ve done to him, it’s not his fault.”

I nodded, feeling numb.  I didn’t know what to think of what my father had done.  The best I could do right now was not think of it. “Well,” she said finally, and let me go.  “I’m here for you, and so is Andie.  And speaking of Andie, she’ll be wanting some clothes, I imagine.”  Mintra laughed, and let me go.  “You’ll be fine,” she said, and left to go see to Andie.  I finished drying off, and looked at the package she’d left me.  It was a plain shirt, untouched by magic, that looked oddly flat in the hazy sunlight filtering through the windows.  It was white, but would stand out because it didn’t shimmer.  It wasn’t from here.  I wondered where she’d gotten the fabric to make it.

There was a vest that shone black that went over it, and fastened in the front, and black trousers that were rather tighter than I was accustomed to.  They fastened well, and fit like they were supposed to, and I guessed it was probably Mintra’s idea to make them cling to my legs like a second skin.  There were the boots I usually wore, too, a nicer, newer pair than the ones I’d worn to tromp through the forest, and when I was all together, I had to admit that the loose, flat-white shirt contained by the vest across my chest but ballooning out at the arms, and the trousers that were so tight I couldn’t wear anything beneath them – it looked good.  I combed my hair out, and admired myself a little bit in the mirror, wondering what Andie would think of me. 

 

Later that night, we were called to the Counsel’s manor house.  I hadn’t seen Andie after she’d left to dress, and Callun assured me that she and Mintra were having a fine time of it.  I entered the manor, and was bid to wait a few moments while they prepared – apparently this was an important gala – the rulers of Aramalan themselves were rumoured to be attending, and we were to be formally announced, and descend the staircase to the dance floor together.  I wondered if Andie would know what to do – how to dance – or if they’d instructed her, or would just leave her to her own devices.  Well, I would know in a moment.

Callun raced to my door.  “Milord Snow,” he gasped.  “You’re to be announced.  It’s time.”  His face was a furious shade of red, one that I’d already become familiar with.

“You saw Andie, didn’t you?”  I asked.

“Andie?”

“The lady Andreanna Burntree,” I clarified, and his face flushed further.  I didn’t need any other answer than that, and wondered how they’d dressed her.  I could feel my heart fluttering in my chest; I’d attended one of these fetes before, but as my father’s guest and not with all this ceremony.  Callun waved, gasping for breath, and I inhaled deeply before exiting the room.  It let out at the top of a massive staircase, and across from me, I could see Andie.  As if we’d practiced this a hundred times together, we moved at the same pace, joining one another at the center of the stairs.  The herald belted out our names, his voice ringing from the rafters.

“The Lady Wizard Andreanna Burntree and Lord Wizard Greyvaan Snow!”  

“Lady?” Andie asked, accepting my arm with a smile.  Someone had taught her what to do, then, I guessed, but it was only at the back of my mind and I only half-heard the roar of the applause over the pounding of my heart. 

“It’s a title of honour,” I murmured, unable to take my eyes off her.  Mintra had outdone herself.  Andie wore a shimmering black dress with sleeves that slipped off her delicate shoulders, and fell to the ground in cascading waves of layers.  Differently textured fabrics ruffled out , each longer than the next, and she wore a sort of corset over it that added the top layer at her waist.  It emphasized her curves, moreso even than the tight shirts she was so fond of, and a silver necklace laced with pearls hung at her throat.  In place of gloves, she had ribbons twined around her arms, and her hair was pulled up in an elaborate style that I could hardly make sense of.  Holding it in place was the clip I’d bought her, her first day in Arama. 

She looked like a queen.  I felt dizzy with love, with lust, overwhelmed with the sight of her.

“You look _fantastic,_ ” she murmured as we descended, and her hand squeezed my arm.  I could barely believe I was hearing it.

“ _I_ look fantastic?  I look like a candle beside the sun, standing next to you.” 

She beamed at me, her smile lighting up the room.  I heard the whispers as we gained the floor, and a space was cleared almost immediately, and I listened for some of them as I spun her into the first dance. 

“They make a fine couple,” one person said, loudly enough for me to hear.

“Where did she come from?  Burntree isn’t one of the noble names, so she can’t be highborn, but –”

We glided around, Andie soft and pliant in my arms.  She danced as though she’d spent her life training for this moment, though I could feel her little skip-steps hidden beneath her skirt as she tried to keep up with what I was doing.  It looked effortless from the outside, and if we weren’t so close, I might not have noticed.

“She’s quite beautiful,” said a man as we swung by.  “Too bad she’s been claimed by Snow,” he continued, and then Andie smiled at me again and the whole world melted away.  There wasn’t anything but the two of us, and the haunting strains of melody.  The onlookers could have been setting themselves on fire for all the notice I took of them. 

As our dance wound to a close, the herald’s voice rang out again.  “Lady Wizard Eshina Darksquall and her consort, Lord Wizard Man’essin Darksquall!  Rulers of Aramalan!”

Andie spun around and curtseyed low.  I hadn’t even been aware she knew _how_ to curtsy, but I kept that observation to myself as I bowed alongside the rest of those assembled.  They weren’t technically king and queen, though that was the nearest equivalent.  To have them show up unannounced at a fete celebrating us – it was an honour my father would have killed for, once upon a time.  They descended the stairs much as we had, and again the assembly clapped for them.  When they stopped in front of us, Andie and I straightened. 

“Andreanna Burntree,” the queen said, and there was warmth in her voice.  “I thought I recognized you.”

Those closest enough to hear what was being said gasped, and immediately the whispers began circulating through the room.  Andie didn’t say anything, merely inclined her head. 

“Your mother,” the queen continued.  “Was her name Emily?”

Andie nodded then.  “You look like her,” she said.  The queen and her consort king smiled at one another. 

“We are sisters, Andrea.  You are my niece.” The queen embraced her, then, and the ripples of shock moved through the crowd, and me not least.  Niece of the queen of Aramalan!  No wonder she was so powerful.  So many things slotted into place with those words, and I understood something suddenly.  Not only was Andie’s family from Aramalan, they were kin to the ruling family.  It explained _so much._  

“Her true name, of course, is Emisha,” the queen continued.  “But when she ran away because our parents forbid her to marry the man she wanted, she told me she would change it to Emily, in order to fit in.  That must have been about seventeen or eighteen years ago, now.  She sent pictures, for a while, and then we lost touch.”

Andie was staring, in shock herself, I believed.  “We moved,” she said quietly.  “I don’t – I don’t really remember it that well, but I remember I was about six, and we moved into a different house, and my mother was so depressed for so long.  I never found out why, I was too young, but…” She looked up and there were tears in her eyes.  The queen opened her arms, and in front of the entire wizard council and population of Wizard City, embraced Andie. 

The king sidled up beside me, tugging at his collar.  “They’ll like as not be catching up for a while.  Unless you’d like to continue dancing, why don’t you say we go find some refreshments?”

My mouth was probably wide open.  I couldn’t seem to close it.  “Yes, uh… Your highness.”

He waved a negligent hand.  “We won’t stand on ceremony here,” he said easily.  “You’re half a hero already, and near family, it would seem.  You may call me Man’essin.”

I followed him in silent awe to the refreshment table, and we made small talk about the fete for a few minutes while the entire party gaped, torn between staring at me, and staring at Andie.  I couldn’t help staring, either, for that matter.  Between the sitting ruler of Aramalan and the beautiful girl I’d been dragging around the country who was niece to said sitting rulers, I felt caught between a hammer and an anvil.  Thankfully, Man’essin was at ease with it, and spent much of his time plying me with questions about Andie and our adventures so far. 

It was about the time I’d gotten to the airship that the realization fell upon me.  “They know!”

“Know what?” Man’essin asked.

 For a moment, I’d forgotten who I was talking to.

“The mages,” I said, in shock.  “The mages were trying to kill her long before we discovered their Well.  They must have known somehow that she was related.  It made no sense before, but I understand it now.”

Man’essin’s cool grey eyes narrowed, and for a moment he looked dangerous and I realised how he’d come to be reigning monarch.  “They tried to kill her?”

“One of them threw her off an airship.  It’s a miracle she survived, sir.”

I’d never seen anyone flash from calm to murderously angry and back to calm as quickly as he did.  Within the span of seconds, he’d done just that, and a hand reached for his hips as thought looking for a weapon there.  I understood the feeling; the mages made me want to run for a sword as well. 

He became calm again when he saw Andie and the queen dancing together.  It should have looked absurd – the acknowledged queen of Aramalan and a teenaged girl wearing a dress I imagined would not be out of place in a gothic dance club, dancing a waltz together – but all I could see was how beautiful they both were, and how much they resembled one another.  It wasn’t a comparison people were likely to make, but with the two of them standing side by side, they were unmistakably related.   The song ended, and Andie made her way to my side, her face bright and eyes shining. 

“Did you see?” she asked.  “I was dancing with my aunt.  _The queen._ Can you believe it?”

Her enthusiasm was infectious, and I grinned at her.  “Would you care to dance with a lowly wizard after such a high honour, my lady?”

She flushed. “I’m not a lady.”

“You certainly are.” Though she argued my words, she accepted my arm and we spun back out onto the dance floor, rejoining the rest of the guests and setting off a fresh wave of gossip.  In the background, I could see Man’essin and his wife dancing around and looking for all the world like they were the only two people in the room.  We were so similar, at the distance – the lady Eshina could have been Andie, plus twenty or thirty years, and Man’essin and I were both dark haired and broad shouldered.

Looking at them, I felt like I was looking at my future.  Perhaps not as the royal family, but I could see us at that age, Andie and I, and I had the king and queen to look to for an example. 

The dancing was slowly winding down.  Andie and I were one of only a few couples still left on the dance floor, twirling softly with the music with no real steps involved.  I felt a prickle at the base of my neck a split second before the roof of the building was torn off. 

Mages descended through the hole borne on an unholy wind.  I could see my father supporting them, but he no longer looked like my father.  Whatever he’d been was long gone, and he was slowly transforming.  I could see his ears had stretched and grown fur, so that they looked like a dogs.  His hands curved into claws, wielding long nails like talons.  He looked different enough that I could tell myself he was no longer my father, but it was still a shock.

He’d been all I had, for so long.  _What could have driven him to the mages?  And in such a fashion?_

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the guests hurrying out through the doors; a few stayed, prepared to do battle, but for the most part they left.  I saw Man’essin escort his lady wife through the door, and then wheel around to face the contingent of mages.  There were just five this time, but they had the power of the Well of Darkness on their side. 

I didn’t think this was going to end well.

Raphaelim Firewind was in the lead, laughing.  “I came hunting Andreanna, but it seems I’m to be granted a two-for-one.  _You!_   Man’essin Darksquall!  King, some people would call you.  A wizard, setting himself up above the rest despite our socalled equality.  Setting yourself up above mages but no longer!  For now we have the strength of power at our back, and we shall remake the world!”

“You will unbalance it!”  Man’essin’s voice rang out, strong and true.  “You have made the bed of your choices, do you now grieve that you have to lie in it?”  Lightning crackled around his fingers, though he kept it contained.  Beside me, I saw Andie take a step forward, her arm flung out. 

“What do you want me for?” she called, and at the same time I thrilled to hear her, so brave! I almost quailed.  Man’essin knew as well as I what it meant that the mages had harnessed the power of the Well to my father, and now controlled it through him.  She had _no idea._

“Andie,” I hissed, but she stepped in front of me. 

“Stay back, Grey,” she whispered, and I could have laughed if I hadn’t been afraid of it coming out on a sob.  So brave and so _stupid._  

“what do you think you’re going to do?” I asked her.  “There’s five of them, my father controls the Well, and you’re not even fully trained!”

I could see her drawing her strength about her like a cloak.  Whether she’d always had it, and I was just now noticing, or if the knowledge of her history and kin had brought it on I didn’t know, but she had a regal air about her now, and she looked older than her sixteen years.  “I don’t need to be trained,” she said.  “I know what to do.” 

She pulled at the bottom few layers of her dress, tearing them off and revealing her legs.  She was wearing leggings and boots beneath the dress; it was so typically Andie that I almost laughed.  I didn’t, though, I couldn’t, because tearing the bottom few layers of her dress off meant she could move easier.  Firewind and Man’essin had been talking – I hadn’t paid them any attention, but I saw them both snap to attention when Andie walked up. 

“You’ll destroy the balance,” she said, and I was frozen to the spot wondering where she’d learned that.  “There’s a reason they sealed the Well against you.  Look at Antrei,” she said, and pointed so imperiously that not even Firewind could look away.  All eyes turned to my father, who was twitching and changing even before our eyes.  “This is the power you seek to hold,” Andie continued.  “It cannot be held.  It will destroy him, can you not see?”

“Pretty little princess,” Firewind sneered.  “I didn’t realise you had a thought in that head beyond Grey’s backside.”

While Andie gaped and tried to think of a suitable response, Man’essin and a few others who’d stayed took the opportunity she’d given them and attacked.  Two of the mages fell, dead, to the ground.  My feet were still frozen – I couldn’t have moved, either to join the battle or to run away, even if I’d wanted to.  And there was a battle, following that.  Flames and lightning crackled through the air, the very ground beneath us rose up and buckled, and the wind shrieked in gales, tearing one of the mages from the air and sending them through a glass wall. 

I saw Firewind and my father pull back together – vastly outnumbered now, I wondered if they were going to make their escape – and then a bright light flashed through the room, blinding us. 

I heard Andie shout, something that sounded like _No!_ and I reached forward, running, no longer frozen because then the laughter was ringing through the hall, and I could feel the heat of the manor on fire.  The spots were beginning to fade from my eyes and vision was returning, slowly.  I could see Firewind, arms outstretched and head thrown back – it was from him the laughter was coming from – and then he was gone, just vanished in the same way I had transported Andie and myself to Wizard City from the Well of Darkness.  It had nearly killed me to do it, but somehow – the _aura_ of power that surrounded him, it was the same miasma of darkness that had leaked out of the Well – I could see my father, and white fur sprouted from his face now, and his jaw was lengthening into a snout and there was a _tail_ stretched out behind him – whatever he was now, he was no longer my father – I saw him drop to the floor on all fours as his body gave a final wrench, and he became a beast, throwing his head back and howling. 

The sound alone was enough to send shivers through my heart. 

I realised in that moment that he had become the White Beast of the Well, the thing that had been sealed into the Well so long ago.  The mages had created it in an effort to tilt the balance in their favour, but it turned out they couldn’t control it. 

The wizards had sacrificed one of their own to seal it away from the mages and the world.  I looked for Andie, and saw her facing the creature down.  My heart leapt up into my throat, and my shout of warning died stillborn behind it as I saw the beast snarl at her, and then turn and flee through the hole where the roof had been.  I saw Man’essin out of the corner of my eye; he was bleeding, but tending to one of the other wizards who had stood with us in the battle, and then –

I swear I don’t know how she did it.

But Andie – Andrea Byrne, my socialite neighbour, Andreanna Burntree, the niece of the ruling family of Aramalan and my most beloved treasure – she gathered that nobility and power around her again, and jumped after it, vanishing into the night. 

I didn’t know what she was going to do, but I couldn’t let her do it alone.  I ran for the doors.


	13. Untitled Chapter (Andie)

I don’t know how I managed it, but I saw Antrei Snow become the white werewolf and I knew what I had to do.  Somehow, Firewind had taken the majority of the power, leaving Antrei with the curse.  Someone else would have to track him down and stop him, because Antrei was my target. 

I couldn’t let Grey face down his own father, whether or not he’d become something inhuman. 

When the wolf leapt through the ceiling – where the ceiling had been – I followed.  I don’t know how, but just like something had told me to tear my dress, it now gave me the strength to chase after the wolf that had been Antrei.  I jumped through the ceiling after him, and it was a race.

I heard Grey behind me, running to catch up, but the wind I’d so recently learned to command was pushing me forward, helping my footsteps become large enough to keep up.  The wolf ran faster than any normal creature should have been able to move, and my power moved me along slightly slower.  I felt so bad, leaving Grey behind, but the wolf had been _his father._ It was better this way.  I’d do whatever it took to get rid of it, and then we’d see about what happened afterward.

It took almost no time at all to reach the outskirts of Wizard City – it was an island, after all, a –

A floating island. 

The Antrei-wolf didn’t hesitate at the edge; he simply leaped off, vanishing through the clouds.  I couldn’t wait on an airship, but I didn’t know how else to get down.  Grey finally caught up, out of breath and looking mad enough to spit. 

“What the _hell_ are you _thinking?”_

“I wasn’t,” I said honestly.  But then I started.  I’d fallen from this height before.  I’d been unconscious, but my power had saved me.  I’d have bet anything I owned that I knew what the Antrei-wolf was going to do next, and all we had to do was get to it before it was too late.  “Grey, do you trust me?”  I wasn’t sure I trusted myself, but the words came out strong.

“Yes,” he said instantly – not even thinking about it.  I felt love inside, and vowed I’d tell him before anything else happened, supposing we lived through this, because I took his hand and pulled him over the side with me.

He screamed loud enough that I could hear him over the rushing wind, but the words that followed it I couldn’t make out.  _Just trust me,_ I thought, and gave his hand a squeeze.  The look he gave me in return could have scraped a layer off a steel beam, but I didn’t let it get me down.  I drew on the power inside me, and felt it when our descent slowed.  We were still going too quickly for conversation, but we were no longer in freefall.

Instead it felt like a pillow had formed under us, something pliable but still supporting our weight.  I directed it towards the forest where we’d found the Well, acting mostly on instinct and the memory of the hours I’d spent pouring over the maps of Aramalan.  The invisi-pillow zoomed onwards, moving horizontally rather than vertically now.  Grey clung to me, his face white, but his lips set in determination.  He knew probably better than I did which direction we were going. 

Below us, I could see the trees shaking and moving, and between the branches, flashes of white.  We were almost neck and neck with the Antrei-wolf, and I willed my wind to go faster.  It did, but just barely.  I could feel the drain on my system, and closed my eyes, recalling the lessons in meditation Benjin Boite had passed on to me. 

 _“Ye dinna need calm and silence or a snowy mountain top to meditate,”_ he’d said.  “ _Ye jest need a moment to separate yer mind from yer surroundings.”_  

I felt for the power inside me.  It was slowly – very slowly – draining to fuel the wind that pushed us forward, and to hold together my pocket of air that held us up.  I sharply divided my power into three parts – one part, I tucked away deep inside myself.  That was for me. 

One part, I readied to do battle with the Antrei-wolf. 

And the last part, as the knowledge whispered through me, prepared to form the seal on the Well. 

“Grey,” I said, leaning close and practically shouted.  “When we get to the Well, you have to promise not to interfere!”

“What?”

I rolled my eyes.  “ _Don’t interfere!”_  

He drew back slightly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.  I don’t think he knew what I was about, anyway, and I might have tossed him off the pillow-cloud if he’d disagreed.  I took a deep shuddering breath, and held true to the course, sparing one glance behind us.  The shaking of the trees that signaled the Antrei-wolf’s progress was about a mile behind us.

That, if nothing else, was in our favour. 

 

When we reached the Well, my little cloud-thing dropped us close to the ground and then dissipated.  Grey grabbed hold of my arm and shook me.

“Andie, tell me why we’re here.  What are you planning?”

I took a deep breath.  “You can’t interfere,” I told him again, then cut him off before he could question me further about it.  “You _can’t._   It’s your father, Grey.  I can’t ask you to.”

His breath shuddered out of his body, shaking him.  “You’re not,” he said.  “And it’s not my father anymore.”

I could hear the sound in the distance of trees being uprooted and trampled.  Our time was getting short.  I took Grey in my arms and kissed him, stunning him into motionless silence.  For that, it was almost worth it.  “I don’t care how young we are,” I said.  “I fell in love with you the moment we stepped through the wall in the Gate Room, and I don’t regret a moment of the time we’ve spent together here.   It’s been the adventure of a lifetime.”

“Andie,” he murmured.  I looked into his eyes, and saw a deep and abiding joy there.  And love.  It nearly took my breath away to see it.  “I love you, too.”

I could have jumped into the air, flown around, and done cartwheels off the moon.  I kissed him again instead.  And kissed him, and kept kissing him until it wiped his mind clean of whatever he might have thought about my sudden confession. 

Standing in the middle of a blackened, burned out clearing in the woods I told him over and over again how much I loved him, and he basked in it even as I basked in the love he offered me in return.  Finally, I felt the Antrei-wolf – grown to huge proportions during its flight to the Well – coming closer.  It felt like a black hole in the energy swirling around the Well, and us. 

“Grey,” I said, and gathered the last of the power I’d set aside to power my floating cushion.  “I’m sorry.”

“Wha-?”

I pushed him from the clearing just as the Antrei-wolf bounded up, and sealed it.  I didn’t need the words or the knowledge – it was just inside me, and what I willed, the magic did.  I’d had a very productive conversation with my aunt the queen while we were dancing, as silly as it might have looked from the outside.

I saw Grey regain his feet and come forward, an angry expression on his face, but where the blackened circle of ground began, it was as if a force field had sprung up.  He couldn’t move past it.  I couldn’t hear him, either, though he pounded on the invisible wall and shouted at me.

The Antrei-wolf looked at him, and I could see the sadness in his silver-gleaming eyes.  Antrei was still in there, I realised.  Had been in there with the power of the wolf the whole time – I’d seen it before, just before they knocked me out when we found the Well.  He was saddened by the things he’d done.  My job suddenly became more than just preventing Grey from having to fight his father, because whatever he said, Antrei _was_ still in there, somewhere.  It was a mission of mercy as well; Antrei pleaded silently through the wolf’s eyes, begging to be freed from the horrible mistake he’d made.

I didn’t know if my plan would free him, but it would at least keep him from harming anyone. 

Then the massive shaggy head turned towards me, and flashed gold, and I knew that Antrei was no longer in control.  It was me versus the wolf now. 

How long we circled one another, I couldn’t say.  We locked eyes, and neither of us looked away, and I tried desperately not to think of Grey, and what he might have been doing, locked outside the circle.  Then the wolf pounced, and I dodged, and as I felt its fiery breath even as its claws came down where I had been standing, I realised that I’d made a mistake.

I’d partitioned my power into three parts. One for me.  One to get here.  And one to seal the Well.

But I was going to need the seal-power to defeat the wolf before I could lock him into the well.  It was well and truly going to be another sacrifice.  Tears sprang to my eyes, and I looked at Grey then.  He was looking helplessly at me, his hands pressed flat against the barrier he couldn’t see and couldn’t cross.  I took a deep breath.  I’d had these months with Grey, and I’d known love, and I’d told him how I felt.

I had no regrets.

The wolf spat fire at me again, and it caught my arm – pain such as I had never even imagined could exist enveloped me, because it was the arm that had been broken as well.  I felt the pain of its breaking all over again, plus the disgusting and sickening smell of my own skin burning, and the unmatched agony of my flesh bubbling and blackening under the onslaught. 

I yanked my arm away, but the damage was done.  The Antrei-wolf grinned lazily at me, his tongue lolling out as he surveyed the damage he’d done.  I drew on the magic and summoned two winds as fast and hard as anvils, smashing him between them.  He howled in pain, and for all that it was so dangerous the fight was over so quickly.

The winds that had crushed his hind legs lifted him into the air, dropping him into the Well.  I leapt up onto the ledge, and gave one last look at Grey. 

He’d beaten his hands bloody against the barrier, and his handsome face was streaked with tears and dirt.  He was still shouting something, but I still couldn’t hear him.  I shook my head, offering him a weak smile.

“I love you,” I said, and I saw that he understood as he sagged against the barrier.  I wasn’t much good at reading lips, but I knew the shape of the words he said next.

“ _I love you too.”_  

I had exhausted two of the three sections of magic.  Drawing on the final one, the one meant to save my own life, I knew I was going to die to seal the Well.  Even as I stood on the edge of it, I could feel the Antrei-wolf climbing his way back up, inch by painful inch.  His howling was deafening, maddening.  I took a deep breath, gathered everything I could into me – which included the barrier, and I heard Grey’s shouting now as it vanished –

“Andie, please, please Andie don’t do it don’t leave me there’s got to be some other way-”

I wished, selfishly, that I hadn’t dropped the barrier.  I didn’t to hear him begging me.  I couldn’t look at him, I just drew myself up.

“Grey!” I said, staring straight ahead.  He stopped, realising that he could hear me.  I heard him move, but I didn’t see what he did.  I couldn’t look at him again, or I’d lose my nerve, and the wolf would free himself from the Well and Darkness would reign loose on the world.  I had to do this.  “You have to stop Raphaelim,” I said.  I felt like a queen, then.  Eshina had told me I might have been, had I stayed.  She and Man’essin were childless. 

“Andie,” he whispered, and it nearly broke my heart to hear him. 

“You must,” I insisted, and finally broke my own resolve and looked at him.  “For me,” I said.  “If you see them, you tell my parents I loved them.”  I didn’t want to say goodbye, but I was about to sign my own death warrant to save this world, which I had only known for a handful of months.  But Grey had told me, and I’d read, too, that if Aramalan were to collapse then earth would follow, since they were two sides of the same coin.  Once, they may have existed separately, but now they were so intertwined that one could not survive without the other.  By doing this little thing, I was saving two worlds. 

 _Don’t let it go to your head,_ I teased myself, but it was halfhearted. 

“Always remember that I loved you,” I said to Grey, and jumped over the Well.  I shoved my power down into it, and felt the wolf pause, realise, and fall.  The power slipped into the cracks in the old seal, fixing it up, making it stronger.  Nothing was coming out of this Well ever again. 

Power seeped into the very ground, taking the Well out of the world.  No one would ever find it again, because there would be nothing there to find.  If Grey did as I asked, and took care of Raphaelim –

It would be the end of the enmity.  The wars would stop.  This was it. 

I threw my head back, closed my eyes, and let my hands dangle behind me.  The last drop of power slipped out of me, and I felt the cool embrace of death touch me as the Seal was completed.  The last thing I saw was a tunnel of darkness, with a bright, shining warmth at the end of it.


	14. Untitled Epilogue (Grey)

I watched as Andie froze in place, head back, hair streaming.  She was glorious in death!  Ah, but she’d been the answer to my every prayer.  I felt the influence of the Well receding.  To be sure, the ground might never recover, and the trees and plants might never grow here again, but the Well was gone.

There was just Andie, suspended in the air between the four poles and the streamers of the wards she’d given her life to repair.  She was like a statue, for all that she was still flesh and blood.  I knew.

In a few hundred years, maybe as many as a few thousand, she’d become stone, just like the Seal before her.  She would be an eternal monument to her sacrifice.

The hole in my chest was too great to compass.  I couldn’t even cry, now that she’d done it.  The grief was too strong, too near.  She’d given me a charge before she’d done it, though, and on my life and honour, I would see it done.

A rivalry of over ten years would culminate in one victor, and because of what he’d wrought in my life, I would make sure it was me. 

No matter how long it took to hunt him down, I would make him pay for taking Andie from me.  And no matter how long it took, either, I would discover a way to get her back.  I didn’t care how I did it. My heart hardened.

My father gone.  My girlfriend, best friend, love – dead, or as good as.  I turned from the seal of wards and began walking back to Woodhaven, the small village we’d stayed in while tracking the Well the first time.  I’d make my plans from there, and god help anyone who got in my way. 

EPILOGUE 2 (AKA, wordpadding?)

Emily Byrne paused in the middle of washing the dishes.  She’d been feeling something tugging within her, something unknown and unknowable that nevertheless had a familiar resonance.  She closed her eyes and thought of her daughter. 

 _Andie, where are you?_  

Sean thought she was gone.  The police had turned their manhunt into a search for the body, but Emily had never given up hope that she’d just been sort of _misplaced_ somewhere.  No matter how much people told her that it had probably been the Fergussons – they’d come out of nowhere, been passing strange, and then vanished the same night as Andie had – something in her rejected it. 

She looked out the window that hung over the sink and saw herself reflected in the glass.  At least, she thought it was herself, until it quirked its head and grinned at her.

And spoke. 

Emily shrieked, at first wondering if she’d actually lost her mind, but the not-reflection spoke soothingly to her.

“Shh.  Calm down, sister.  Do you not remember the mirrors?”    

Suddenly it all came back to her in a rush, the floodgates of her memories opened and the waters pouring through her mind.  “Eshina!”

“You remember now?”  At Emily – no, her name had been Emisha… - at Emisha’s nod, Eshina grinned again.  “Good.  I’ve got news you might enjoy, sister.  How long has Andie been missing?”

Emisha sank down to the floor, almost against her will.  Her legs just refused to support her any longer.  “Six months,” she whispered, knowing her sister would hear her if the connection hadn’t been broken. 

“You already know what I’m about to say, don’t you?”

“The Fergussons,” Emisha said instead of answering.  She suddenly leapt to her feet, eyeing her sister’s reflection in the glass.  “It’s the Fergussons.  They’re wizards.  That’s why… And if I hadn’t forgotten…”

Eshina clucked soothingly.  “Apparently it’s a common problem.  Something we’ll have to work on, right?  Anyway.  I don’t know who the Fergussons are, but you’ve missed a lot.  Antrei Snow – the head of the Wizard Council?  He betrayed them to the mages, who unsealed the Well of Darkness.  I believe… it’s been taken care of, but Greyvaan Snow will not speak to me about what happened.  At any rate, Andrea is here.  And as soon as you remember how to open the gateway, I’ve got a lot more to tell you.”

)

Sean Byrne entered the house after work and found a curious, echoing silence greeted him.  He automatically went to Andie’s room and checked on it, but it was completely unchanged.  Emily hadn’t even been in it to clean; she was convinced Andie was alive somewhere, and wouldn’t want her mother rooting around in her room, even to dust or vacuum, while she was away.

He shook his head, grieving for his wife as well as his daughter.  “Emily!”

His voice echoed through the house in a way it hadn’t since Andie had first vanished.  Suddenly terrified, he sprinted to the bathroom. No Emily.  Their room, nothing.  He tried the living room, and the kitchen, and finally on the counter saw the note.

 _My beloved Seiern,_ it read.  He scowled, wondering for a moment who Seiern was, and then memory kicked him in the head like a horse.  He dropped the note as the memories flooded back, pounding into his brain and leaving him with a throbbing headache.  He staggered to his feet and grabbed for a bottle of aspirin on the counter, swallowing two of the pills dry before he retrieved the note.

 _My beloved Seiern,_ it said.  _I have been in touch with my sister Eshina.  She suddenly found us again after all this time. Do you know how?  Andie is alive!  She somehow got into Arama.  I think it has something to do with the Fergussons.  You know how everyone told me they were behind her disappearance?  Well, they were, but not in the way everyone thought.  They must have brought her with them somehow,and she either couldn’t or chose not to come back.  And you remember that month when Grey Fergusson next door was so depressed, and his father wasn’t there?  He kept coming over and eating at our house because I didn’t want himt o starve, but all this time it appears that he came back depressed because he thought he’d lost Andie.  Did you know they were in a relationship?  I didn’t even think she liked him!  Anyway, Eshina’s opened the door to Arama for us.  It’ll be open for as long as you need it to be, and she’s promised to explain everything she knows._

_That includes what happened to Andie, because apparently she was involved in taking down some sort of coup attempt by the mages?_

_Either way, I’m here if you’re wondering, and the doorway is in the hall.  You should be able to open it if you remember what I mean here.  Awaiting you with love, and news of our daughter,_

_Emisha Treeborn, AKA Emily Byrne_

**_ END _ **


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